Miami Top Five Qualifies Creed For Martinsville Dash 4 Cash

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Saturday’s Hard Rock Bet 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway marked one of the quieter top-five finishes of Sheldon Creed’s NASCAR Xfinity Series career, but he wasn’t about to pass it up.

It wasn’t that the Haas Factory Team driver didn’t move steadily forward all race long; he did, starting ninth and earning 11 stage points through the day before eventually taking the checkered flag in fifth.

But when a NASCAR Cup Series champion dominates the race – Kyle Larson led five times for 132 laps despite failing to win – it’s difficult for an Xfinity Series regular to steal a lot of headlines.

Creed didn’t stress the lack of chatter, though. His 43 points earned were third-most on the day and elevated him two spots to fifth in the regular season standings.

“It doesn’t matter how you get there; these are the (kind of) days we need to have,” said Creed.

Homestead was, to put it simply, another solid day in a career that’s been full of them for Creed over his four years in the Xfinity Series. It marked the 29th top five and 55th top 10 for the Alpine, Calif., native in 109 starts, as well as tied his track-best mark of fifth set last year.

To paraphrase late novelist and journalist John Steinbeck, “You don’t have to be perfect to be good.” It’s a philosophy Creed’s No. 00 Road Ranger/REDCON1 Ford Mustang team has seemingly lived by recently.

“Top fives are always good,” Creed noted after the race. “I feel like we had a pretty good car; I thought we were as fast as Xfinity Mobile (internet) at times. We just fought a bit of a tight condition all day and were too snug through the first half of the corner to really stay within striking distance of the leaders on the short run.

“We were much better on the long run against the wall, but still fought being a bit too tight to fully take advantage of all the speed that was there.”

Creed hung on to the tail end of the lead lap late as Larson cruised up front, taking fifth with 22 laps left after passing reigning rookie-of-the-year Jesse Love on the high side of the 1.5-mile South Florida oval.

By the time the race’s final caution waved with eight to go, setting up an overtime restart, there were just five cars on the lead lap – setting up one of the more bizarre, and wild, Homestead Xfinity Series finishes ever.

“The finish was definitely interesting. I don’t know if I ever remember seeing (just) six cars on (fresh) tires on the lead lap at the end here,” admitted Creed, who had a first-hand seat when Larson spun the tires and ultimately lost the race to defending series champion Justin Allgaier.

“Overall, I’ll take another top five, and we’ll continue to keep working hard and getting better as an organization,” he added. “We’ve still got a high ceiling and if we run like we have been lately, there’s a lot we’re going to be able to achieve.”

Creed averaged a sixth-place running position at Homestead, one of eight drivers whose race-long average was inside the top 10, and heads to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway 46 points clear of the provisional playoff cut line through six races.

He also qualified for the second of four Xfinity Dash 4 Cash races, meaning he’ll race against Allgaier, Austin Hill, and Haas teammate Sam Mayer for a $100,000 bonus check at the historic, half-mile Martinsville ‘paper clip.’

Broadcast coverage of the Marine Corps 250 is slated for Saturday, March 29 at 5 p.m. ET, live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Aric Almirola swept both Xfinity Series races at Martinsville in 2024. Creed has twice been a runner-up there, finishing second in two of the last three playoff races at the track.