Sheldon Creed passed Austin Hill for the lead on the overtime restart and went on to win Sunday’s Truck race at Texas Motor Speedway. The victory, Creed’s fourth of the season, moves Creed to the championship race.
Creed joins GMS Racing teammate Brett Moffitt in the title race. Moffitt’s push helped Creed get by Hill going into Turn 3 on the overtime restart. Creed led 131 of the 152 laps.
Johnny Sauter and Stewart Friesen crashed battling for the lead with 18 laps to go. Sauter came under Friesen and moved up the track. He and Friesen made contact. Friesen could not continue. That put Creed back at the front. He lost the lead to Hill shortly before the caution came out for a crash between Ben Rhodes and Christian Eckes. That set up the overtime restart.
“It started with just hard racing and we’ve had this problem before,” Eckes said of his issues with Rhodes. “I’ve raced him hard, but I race everybody hard and that’s what I’m here to do. We had a little bit of an incident at Las Vegas and all day today, he didn’t really give me much room. Every time we would race side-by-side, if you backed it up to the turn three entry even, he was laying on my quarter panel, which caused me to go up the race track.
“Sure, I was being aggressive and trying to clear him, but in the same aspect, it’s just hard racing on a one-groove race track. Then he got a little upset and we got straight down the straightaway and I was separated and had a run. Was going to probably clear him and he just turned left as hard as he could and hooked me. You could see that he turned left with the way the truck reacted after he turned me. Unfortunately, it’s just the nature of the business.”
Hill finished second. He was followed by Zane Smith, Raphael Lessard and Brett Moffitt.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Sheldon Creed
STAGE 2 WINNER: Matt Crafton
WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Zane Smith’s third-place finish was his second top 10 in the last six races. ... Raphael Lessard’s fourth-place was his second top 10 in the last six races.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Grant Enfinger, who started the day seven points out of the final transfer spot to the title race, finished 32nd after his engine blew. That will put him in a must-win situation at Martinsville to make the championship event. ... Stewart Friesen’s race ended after contact with Johnny Sauter while battling for the lead late in the race. ... The race went to overtime after contact between Ben Rhodes and Christian Eckes that ended Eckes’ race.
NEXT: The series races Oct. 30 at Martinsville Speedway (8 p.m. ET on FS1) in the final race in the Round of 8.