NASCAR: How the remaining Truck schedule benefits one driver
By Bryce Turner
With more road courses and new playoff stops, we look at how the NASCAR Truck Series schedule benefits one driver in particular.
Sheldon Creed enters the NASCAR Truck Series’ first ever race at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) coming off of his first win of the season in round eight at Darlington Raceway after Toyota won the season’s first seven races.
While the two tracks are different in almost every way, they are both examples of how the remaining 2021 schedule benefits the driver of the #2 GMS Racing Chevrolet as he defends his first series championship.
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Darlington and COTA both fall under the two categories of tracks where Creed does exceptionally well: speedways that are between one and two miles in length and road courses. Each of his six career wins and 14 of his 17 career top five finishes have come on these two types of tracks.
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One-to-two-mile speedways make up just over half of his starts, and he has a higher top five percentage on these tracks (31.43%) than on short tracks, dirt tracks, or speedways that are two or more miles in length.
Meanwhile, in three career road course races, Creed has one win and three top four finishes, with an average finish of 2.3. He finished in fourth place at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) in 2019, won on the Daytona International Speedway road course last season and finished runner-up on the Daytona road course earlier this year.
His success on road courses could be extra beneficial this season, as the four scheduled road course races are the most in a single season in Truck Series history.
This is also the first year with multiple road course races on the schedule since 2000. In addition to Daytona and COTA, the series is scheduled to visit Watkins Glen International for the regular season finale on Saturday, August 7 and CTMP during the first round of the playoffs on Sunday, September 5.
So the remainder of the 2021 Truck Series schedule looks good for Creed.
Of the seven races remaining before the postseason begins, there are two road courses and three races on one-to-two-mile speedways. This stretch will provide an opportunity for Creed to continue his momentum on these types of tracks, where he could secure more wins and playoff points while improving upon his third place position in the point standings.
Once the playoffs begin, each round will feature at least one of these tracks. The round of 10 is set to begin with a race at the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, where Creed won last year and has an average finish of 4.0 in two starts. A race at CTMP follows on the schedule.
The round of 8 is slated to open with a race at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Creed has two top five finishes and four top 10 finishes in five starts with an average finish of 8.0. While he is not great at this track compared to others on the schedule, he did finish runner-up there in the playoff race last year.
If Creed can win at Las Vegas and either Gateway or CTMP, or if he manages to accumulate enough points leading into the postseason to allow for a poor outing, he could work his way into the Championship 4 without having to worry about his results at Talladega Superspeedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, where he has no top five finishes and a combined three top 10 finishes in eight starts (on asphalt).
If Creed can enter the season finale at Phoenix Raceway as one of the Championship 4 drivers, he’ll have the opportunity to repeat as champion, having won the race and the title in the series’ most recent visit to the track in November. Overall, he has two top 10 finishes and an average finish of 7.67 in three starts at the track.
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Creed had a breakout season last year in the Truck Series, winning five races and the championship. With more road course races and a steady amount of races on one-to-two-mile speedways, this year’s schedule could work to his advantage as he chases a second consecutive title.