Sheldon Creed Makes it Two-in-a-Row at Darlington

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series continues the March to Phoenix with race two of the Round of 10 at the Lady in Black, Darlington Raceway for the In It to Win It 200. Sheldon Creed won this at this track back in May and Ben Rhodes won this race a year ago.

Sheldon Creed and Matt Crafton led the field to the green flag for the afternoon truck race at Darlington. Creed led about the first 10 laps until John Hunter Nemechek took the lead, looking fast early. On a restart with 19 laps left in stage one, Colby Howard went spinning coming off turn two. John Hunter Nemechek would go on to collect his 10^th stage win of 2021. Sheldon Creed and John Hunter Nemechek led the field to the green flag to start stage two. Chandler Smith would end up grabbing the lead with Sheldon Creed and John Hunter Nemechek battling for second place during stage two. Trouble with 24 to go as Jack Wood, Kris Wright and playoff contender Ben Rhodes got into a pileup. Rhodes attempted a slide job and simply ran out of room trying to pass Jack Wood. All three ended up in a wad in a situation that they couldn’t get out of. Sheldon Creed would then go on to win stage two as Chandler Smith passed John Hunter Nemechek for second.

Sheldon Creed had another great restart with 50 laps to go to start the final stage. Tanner Gray also smacked the wall during the restart. Gray would have more issues about six laps later and ended up with heavy damage to the left side of his #15 Ford F-150. Derek Kraus then spun the #45 of Lawless Alan with 42 to go, as Alan was inside the top 15 at the time of the caution. On the next restart with 36 to go, Josh Reaume went spinning and hit the inside wall to bring out another caution. Sheldon Creed continued to lead as he already had a win to lock himself into the round of six. Chandler Smith was dropping back late in the race and at ten to go, is 12 points out of the cut line. Stewart Friesen was cutting into John Hunter Nemechek for second in the closing laps. Friesen was there, trying to get around lapped traffic. Tyler Hill had heavy damage with four laps to go, but the race kept going. John Hunter then began to chase Creed but it wasn’t enough and Sheldon Creed would win his second race in a row at Darlington. John Hunter Nemechek also locked his spot into the next round via points.

2021 In It to Win It Top 10 (and Playoff finishers):

1. Sheldon Creed (Playoffs)
2. John Hunter Nemechek (Playoffs)
3. Stewart Friesen (Playoffs)
4. Todd Gilliland (Playoffs)
5. Parker Kligerman
6. Grant Enfinger
7. Chandler Smith (Playoffs)
8. Johnny Sauter
9. Zane Smith (Playoffs)
10. Matt Crafton (Playoffs)
11. Carson Hocevar (Playoffs)
12. Austin Hill (Playoffs)

34. Ben Rhodes (Playoffs)