NASCAR Driver Fined and Penalized for Causing Crash During Nashville Race
NASCAR penalized Xfinity Series driver Sheldon Creed on Tuesday for causing a crash during last weekend's race at Nashville Superspeedway. The 25-year-old driver was docked 25 points in the Xfinity Series standings, dropping him from seventh to eighth place. He was also fined $25,000 for his actions.
The crash occurred during lap 69 of the Tennessee Lottery 250 on Saturday. Creed's No. 2 Chevrolet made contact with Sammy Smith was who driving the No. 18 Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing. Creed continued the race and finished 17th, but Smith was sidelined for the rest of the race and finished 34th.
NEWS: Sheldon Creed has been issued a behavioral-level penalty following @NashvilleSuperS.
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) June 27, 2023
He has been issued a deduction of 25 driver points and fined $25,000.
"Following Saturday's race at Nashville Superspeedway, NASCAR reviewed radio communications from the No. 2 team. In NASCAR's determination, that communication clearly resulted in the No. 2 car wrecking the No. 18 car on Lap 69, causing the seventh caution of the race," NASCAR said in a statement.
Creed began competing in the Xfinity Series full-time last year and finished 14th in the standings. He has competed in 49 Xfinity Series races in four years and has finished in the top 10 20 times. "I had to kind of step up my program a little bit," Creed told Frontstretch back in April. "I feel like, [in] Trucks, I got a good hold of it and I feel like my race craft was pretty decent and we were just really fast all the time. So that makes things a lot easier. And then we came to Xfinity, and everyone's a lot smarter and the race is different, the car is different. I just had to do better with my homework at home, and I come to the track more prepared and I think I've stepped that up this year, and that's kind of shown a little bit."
Sheldon Creed into Sammy Smith. Smith backs it hard into the wall and Brandon Jones, an innocent bystander, is swept up in it all. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/0TGaeyPHJd
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) June 24, 2023
Before joining the Xfinity Series, Creed competed in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and had a lot of success. From 2019-2021, Creed won eight races and won the Camping World Truck Series title in 2020. "My teammate was going to win the championship and I was going to run third," Creed said after winning the Truck Series championship. "I pride myself on my restarts week in and week out and just nailed the restart there. Driving this thing as hard as I can. I want this so bad. I don't know how I did it, I just drove as hard as I could," he added. "My whole family … we have like 20 camp spots out here. I'm going to drink some cold beer tonight."