Richard Childress criticizes Sheldon Creed for contact on final lap
It’s not a good day to be Sheldon Creed. He lost Saturday’s race at Martinsville on the final lap, knocked out his own teammate and he drew the ire of Richard Childress, the owner of his team.
Like, Creed really ticked off Childress.
“I’ve had drivers drive for me before but nobody as stupid as Sheldon Creed,” Richard Childress told NBC Sports as he left Martinsville Speedway Saturday night.
“You don’t do that as a team player. What else do you want me to tell you?”
So what did Sheldon Creed do? His late bad move caused teammate Austin Hill, who had been in position to advance to next week’s championship race, to bump into him and crash. Creed needed to win the race to move on.
They were side by side on the front row for the final lap. And as they battled through the backstretch, the two drivers made contact with each other. Creed moved ahead in the third turn, but couldn’t get through turn four. As a result, Hill drove into the back of Creed. And then someone drove into Hill, sending Hill into the wall.
Justin Algaier eased past Creed and won the race. Hill, the regular season champion, finished 21st. He didn’t earn one of the final four spots to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 event next Saturday at Phoenix Raceway. Instead, it was Algaier, Cole Custer, John-Hunter Nemechek and Sam Mayer moving on. Custer finished seven points ahead of Hill for the final spot.
Maybe it’s a good thing that Sheldon Creed already is moving onto another team. He had nice words for Childress after the race, even though he knew Childress was irritated.
“For Richard, I just want to thank him for my time here,” Creed told NBC Sports. “I’ve had a really good two years and I’ve learned a ton. My time has come to move on. I’ll forever be thankful for Richard. He was my first Xfinity opportunity out of Trucks.”
Plus, cameras spotted Andy Petree, VP of competition for Richard Childress Racing, screaming at Creed on pit road after the race.
Hill also wasn’t pleased with Sheldon Creed, his soon-to-be former teammate.
“I thought I was doing everything right for the most part,” Hill told NBC. “The thing I’m more mad about is not really the shove up the racetrack, but when he parked it in the corner. I ran into the back of him and blew the radiator and then he lets (Allgaier) win the race. Like how dumb can you be?”