Depending on who you ask, Sheldon Creed is either the first or second person to have competed at the Dakar Rally and record multiple wins in NASCAR’s second division. Depending on who you ask, he’s also either the third or fourth multi-time series winner to have also raced in the Stadium Super Trucks.

After finally scoring his maiden O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory at Atlanta in February, Creed began the revived Chase format by winning at Darlington Raceway on Saturday evening. He took the lead via a quick pit stop before Stage 3, where he led the entire way.

Darlington has always been one of his stronger ovals. In the Truck Series, he dominated the 2020 race during his championship run but was shuffled back by a late speeding penalty, then swept both races in 2021. As an Xfinity Series rookie the following year, he narrowly lost the fall race to Noah Gragson after riding along the wall while scrapping for the win. The 2024 Sport Clips Haircuts VFW 200 was just as painful as a slow pit stop relegated him to third.

Needless to say, finally winning at the historic oval was oh-so-sweet.

“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. To be honest, I wasn’t real happy with the car on the first run. We worked on it all night. JT (crew chief Jonathan Toney) and the boys gave me what I needed there in the end and I was able to get away.

“Hopefully, one of these days, I’ll win one in front of [my grandfather and family] but I was super excited to have the kids and wife here for this one. Just super happy to open the Chase with a win. I don’t know where everyone stacked us, but hopefully we put our name in the card and hopefully we can make a run for the championship.”

There’s something fitting about a former off-road racer winning on the same weekend as the Crandon World Cup. Creed never did the World Championships during his short course career since he grew up in the West Coast-based LOORRS, but he scored a runner-up finish in the Stadium Super Trucks’ second and final race there in 2013. Legacy Motor Club, owned by his idol and fellow off-road alumnus Jimmie Johnson (Creed’s 2020 Darlington throwback was also based on Johnson’s 1996 SODA truck), also signed two-time Baja 1000 class winner Riley Herbst for the 2027 Cup Series season on Thursday.

Creed beat SST founder and mentor Robby Gordon for second at the series’ last Crandon race. (The series considered a return as part of the 2023 World Cup weekend, but it didn’t materialize in the end.) His Darlington win also moves him into a tie with Gordon with two career victories in the O’Buschfinitywide Series… arguably.

Officially, Gordon has one just win in NASCAR’s second tier: the 2004 Emerson Radio 250 at Richmond. However, he and his fans insist on including the 2007 NAPA Auto Parts 200 too. While battling for the lead late, Gordon and Marcos Ambrose clashed until NASCAR black-flagged the former. Gordon refused to answer the black and continued racing until he took the checkered flag in first. NASCAR upheld the penalty and dropped him to 18th while Kevin Harvick was officially the winner, though Gordon continued to celebrate as if he had won. In the years since, Gordon has kept a winner’s banner up in his shop.

If you consider Gordon the legitimate winner of that race, he and Creed are tied for the third-most O’Reilly Auto Parts Series wins among drivers with SST experience. The late Greg Biffle has the most with 20 along with the 2002 championship, followed by Kenny Wallace with nine and Casey Mears‘ one.

If you consider Harvick the winner in Montreal, Creed holds third place by himself in that category. It would also make him the winningest Dakarian in O’Buschfinitywide history.

Creed ran the Dakar Rally in 2016, when he was just an 18-year-old hotshot fresh off winning the 2015 SST title. He and Gordon, the latter running his 11th Dakar, both raced Gordinis built by RGM. Unfortunately for Creed, his race ended in Stage 8 when he was stuck in a rut with a clutch issue and got hit by two passing cars. He skipped several waypoints on his way to the bivouac, resulting in disqualification. Gordon, meanwhile, finished 25th.

Gordon, Creed, and Mattias Ekström are the only drivers who have competed in both the NASCAR Cup Series and Dakar.

Fleetio 200 results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	13	00	Sheldon Creed	Haas Factory Team	Chevrolet	147	Running
2	14	17	Corey Day	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
3	8	19	Brent Crews	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
4	11	8	Sammy Smith	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
5	6	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
6	12	96	Anthony Alfredo	Viking Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
7	7	54	Taylor Gray	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
8	5	41	Sam Mayer	Haas Factory Team	Chevrolet	147	Running
9	15	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
10	3	20	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	147	Running
11	17	26	Dean Thompson	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	147	Running
12	1	1	Carson Kvapil	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
13	4	2	Jesse Love	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
14	19	87	Nick Sanchez	Peterson Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
15	20	44	Brennan Poole	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
16	28	28	Kyle Sieg	RSS Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
17	2	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
18	31	9	Jake Finch	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
19	18	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
20	16	24	Harrison Burton	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	147	Running
21	10	99	Parker Retzlaff	Viking Motorsports	Chevrolet	147	Running
22	27	31	Blaine Perkins	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
23	25	92	Preston Pardus	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
24	33	07	Josh Bilicki	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
25	34	0	Garrett Smithley	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	147	Running
26	9	88	Rajah Caruth	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	145	Running
27	26	32	Daniel Dye	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	145	Running
28	29	42	Logan Bearden	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	145	Running
29	35	55	Joey Gase	Joey Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	119	Overheating
30	22	18	William Sawalich	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	106	Accident
31	21	45	Lavar Scott	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	101	Accident
32	24	48	Patrick Staropoli	Big Machine Racing	Chevrolet	87	Engine
33	23	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	73	Accident
34	37	53	Glen Reen	Joey Gase Motorsports	Toyota	73	Accident
35	32	91	Mason Maggio	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	69	Accident
36	38	47	Dawson Cram	Mike Harmon Racing	Chevrolet	29	Electrical
37	30	02	Ryan Ellis	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	23	Clutch
38	36	38	Brad Pérez	RSS Racing	Ford	21	Brakes

Featured image credit: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images