Sheldon Creed timed things just right — and wound up with his first career NASCAR Truck Series win in Saturday’s Buckle Up In Your Truck 225 at Kentucky Speedway.
The 22-year Creed took the lead with 19 laps to go in Stage 2 and then held on to earn his third stage win of the season.
With 70 laps and the first two stages completed in the scheduled 150-lap event, instead of preparing for the restart for the third and final stage, NASCAR officials brought teams to pit road due to lightning in the area of the Sparta, Kentucky track.
A red flag race stoppage was called and then roughly 30 minutes later and with heavy rain coming down, the race was called official and Creed was scored the race winner.
“This is an odd first win,” Creed said in a post-race teleconference. “I always said I’d be good rather than have luck, and everybody else has been (the opposite), but today I’ll take the luck.
“I miss the fans, normal schedules, everything about it. I have 37 Truck starts today and finally got a win. I’m definitely going to enjoy it tonight.”
Creed’s best finishes prior to capturing Saturday’s win were second-place finishes during races last season at Eldora and Michigan, as well as a third-place finish two weeks ago at Pocono.
Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter — all ThorSport Racing drivers — and Austin Hill rounded out the top-five.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Zane Smith (first career stage win)
STAGE 2 WINNER: Sheldon Creed (third stage win of season)
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Defending Truck Series champ Matt Crafton, who has struggled for much of the season, earned his best finish of 2020 with a third-place finish. It also helped bring Crafton from 31 points out of the 10th and final playoff spot to 22 points back after the rain-shortened race was called.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Spencer Boyd completed just one lap before his engine blew up, knocking him out of the race.
NOTABLE: Codie Rohrbaugh, carrying a special paint scheme for 8-year-old Joshua Shirk, who was in a near-fatal kayaking accident on May 17, lost control of his truck and wrecked out on Lap 13. It was the second straight race Rohrbaugh wrecked out early, having been involved in a Lap 1 wreck at Pocono two weeks ago.
WHAT’S NEXT: The series moves to Texas Motor Speedway for the Vankor 350, Saturday July 18 at 8 p.m. ET (FS1 and MRN).
