Sheldon Creed Opens Chase with Darlington Win

Sheldon Creed won the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Darlington Raceway, his second win of the 2027 season. He opened the inagural O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase on top, shrinking Justin Allgaier’s lead in the standings to just nine points.

“This is everything to me,” Creed said in Victory Lane. “I’ve been so close here so many times. If I could pick a place on the schedule to get a win, this is it.”

Though the No. 00 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet entered the Chase with only one win to Allgaier’s six, their team ranks second in both top-fives and top-10s. Creed has now passed Carson Kvapil for second in the standings, placing him within a single stage’s worth of points from leading the championship hunt.

Initially looking like the car to beat, Justin Allgaier faded late in the race to finish 17th. The tone of the Chase changed on a dime with that lackluster result; Allgaier entered Saturday as the overwhelming favorite and exited with just a narrow lead.

“[I was] just hanging on,” Allgaier said of the final 10 laps. “I’m really disappointed, earlier in the race especially I thought our Arby’s Steak Nuggets Chevrolet was really good. I don’t know, we had an issue there. I locked the left front up getting into Turn 3 on one lap, I got the fence really hard, and then from there you’re just kinda hanging on.”

The worst finisher of the 12 Chase drivers was 26th-place Rajah Caruth, who entered the race already worst off. After suffering alternator issues in Stage 1, the JR Motorsports driver found himself multiple laps down. He rebounded back to the lead lap within 10 laps to go, before being forced down pit road with a fuel pickup malfunction.

Alfredo’s Breakthrough

Perhaps the most surprising performer of the night was one outside of the Chase. Anthony Alfredo, driving for the up-and-coming Viking Motorsports, led nine laps and finished sixth. He won Stage 2, marking only his second stage win in five O’Reilly Auto Parts Series seasons.

“I would say it was [a career race], coming to Darlington and leading that many laps,” Alfredo said. “Winning a stage and doing it all legit, not on tire strategy or anything like that. Holding off some of the best in the field, passing them to do it is important. I’ve been kind of stuck the last few years of my career racing with smaller teams in this garage and I’m super thankful for every opportunity I’ve had that’s gotten me here.”

Tempers Flare

Corey Day and William Sawalich crossed paths on Lap 68, resulting in Sawalich being turned after contact with the outside wall. Under caution, Sawalich found Day and doored him multiple times to show his displeasure. The two had a verbal altercation after the race on pit road.

“I’m over it,” Day said of how Sawalich has raced him this year. “It’s Chase time, he’s not in the Chase so I’m not going to let him ruin my day or make me end up worse on the day than I should be. So yeah, I’m over it. […] I race people the way they race me, and I’m tired of getting raced that way by him.”

“It sucks what happened, I hate it for my guys,” Sawalich said. “We’ve had a lot of run-ins through the season and he blamed them all on me. So I don’t really know.”

On the ensuing restart Jeb Burton spun in front of traffic after contact with Nick Sanchez. After most of the field missed Burton’s No. 27 Chevrolet, he slid to the apron and collected Glen Reen and Mason Maggio. None of the three cars continued afterward.

Daniel Dye wrecked on Lap 60 after what appeared to be an ill-advised block attempt on Dean Thompson. Another incident between Garrett Smithley and Joey Gase sent the latter driver spinning, collecting Lavar Scott and William Sawalich.

Race Results