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Sheldon Creed Earns First NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Win At EchoPark Speedway

by Hunter Thomas February 21, 2026 0 comments

HAMPTON, Ga. – Sheldon Creed won his first-ever NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race after he was in the right place at the right time on the final lap of Saturday’s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at EchoPark Speedway.

On the final lap, Ross Chastain got into the back of leader Austin Hill, and Creed soared on by with the field in tow. The win comes in Creed’s 138^th start in the series. Creed had a strong car all race long. He scored points in all stages and stayed out of trouble en route to earning Haas Factory Team’s second series victory.

“Incredible,” Creed said. “I’ve been a loser the last few years, and I just kept showing up. Not how you draw it up when you win a Truck Championship and win races and go to Xfinity and go four years winless, so incredible.

Parker Retzlaff finished second in the No. 99 KYRO Whisky Chevrolet. He drove from a 23^rd starting spot to finish third in Stage 1. He continued to run up front to finish eighth in Stage 2, and on the final lap, he was in the mix for the win.

Nick Sanchez drove all the way from a 28^th starting spot to finish third in the No. 25 Paynuity/Travel Curious Ford. He finished Stage 1 in eighth, and in the end, he was up front when it mattered.

“I know this sounds a little brash, but I expected to get stage points in stage one, just from what we know about the race car and what it could do,” Sanchez said. “It wasn’t really a surprise there. I was just really trying to learn about the car and see what runs it was able to take, and it really set me up for the end of the race and my strategy going forward.”

Corey Day and Jesse Love completed the top-five. Rounding out the top-10 was Chastain, Sam Mayer, Rajah Caruth, Taylor Gray and Brandon Jones.

Love won Stage 1, and Caruth won Stage 2.

There were a total of 24 lead changes among 11 leaders. Hill led a race high of 34 laps.

The caution flew seven times for 46 laps.

The action started early as the first crash of the race occurred on Lap 6. Ryan Sieg was sent spinning down the frontstretch after tight racing caused contact with Day. Four other drivers piled in as Sieg was crashing.

Contact with Gray sent Sammy Smith spinning in Turn 1 on Lap on Lap 143. Chaos unfolded and the track became completely blocked by crashed cars. A total of 10 drivers were involved in the accident.

Despite the final lap adversity, Hill continues to lead the standings by 22 points over Caruth.

The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will visit Circuit of The Americas on Saturday, Feb. 28. Live coverage of the Focused Health 250 will broadcast on the CW Network at 3 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com