Sheldon Creed made a comeback to remember to clinch the NASCAR Truck Series 2020 championship. After a late restart forced a two-lap dash to decide the champion, Creed surged from ninth place to first on fresh tires to claim his maiden Truck title.

A crash with just three laps left caused a caution. Brett Moffitt was in a prime position to win the title before the incident. Creed then saw his opportunity. While Moffitt decided not to pit and stay put, Creed went for fresh tires and felt it was worth the gamble.

“Jeff and I talked about it a little on the radio. Figured we had nothing to lose. We were going to run fourth in the championship at worse, we were already third. Wanted to pit and at least have a shot there,” Creed said of his and his team’s strategy.

Sheldon Creed explains the intense late action

On the restart, Moffitt struggled on old tires, while Creed made his move.

“Four tires, no fuel. We tightened it way up because I was extremely free. Just had a plan to run the bottom and just try to pick off as many guys as I could. Was trying to watch where they were,” Creed said further.

He then planned to get clear of Christian Eckes in the No. 18 car right away as he did not want to get free underneath him on the exit.

Moffitt’s championship chances soon slipped further as he was caught in traffic. Meanwhile, another contender Grant Enfinger got tangled with Chandler Smith, and Creed made the most of his opportunity and snuck past them for the lead.

How he made the final move to win the NASCAR Truck Series title

Creed explained that he rushed ahead as soon as he saw the window to do so. Even after passing them, Creed’s job was not done. He still had to run a good lap, which he did to win the title.

“I was kind of watching up the track a little bit. I’m seeing the 51 (Smith) just bomb slide his way in there. I need to watch the replay again to see what happened but seemed like the 51 slid up the raceway and checked the whole line up, the 98 up,” Creed continued.

“Yeah, just got clear off of four there and had to put together a good lap,” he added.

The GMS Racing driver finished ahead of another championship contender Zane Smith to bag his first NASCAR title. He was the ARCA champion in 2018. Creed’s win further raises his billing as he looks to move up the ranks in years to come.

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