Creed was 0-137 in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with an astonishing 15 runner-up finishes going into Saturday’s night race. But on the final lap, a win was thrown into his lap as Ross Chastain and Austin Hill collided in the battle for the win.
Hill took the lead from Chastain coming to the white flag, but Chastain was in a perfect position to get a similar run down the backstretch. Hill threw a block all the way to the bottom of the track and the two cars made contact. Hill spun sideways as Creed surged through to capture the checkered flag for the very first time in his career.
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Parker Retzlaff finished second, Nick Sanchez third, Corey Day fourth, and Jesse Love fifth. Chastain, Sam Mayer, Rajah Caruth, Taylor Gray, and Brandon Jones filled out the remainder of the top ten.
Stage 1
After Kyle Busch’s victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the second race of the day at Atlanta got underway. It didn’t take long for the first incident, as Corey Day attempted an ambitious move in the middle six laps into the event. He ran out of room as they went three-wide, sending Ryan Sieg hard into the outside wall.
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Ryan’s brother Kyle Sieg, as well as Harrison Burton, Blaine Perkins, and Patrick Staropoli were all collected. Ryan Sieg was furious, and showed his displeasure with Day after climbing from the car, offering a sarcastic thumbs up and wave. He later said, “It’s lap three, I think. So, we’re just riding, just kind of staying in the line, trying to get our line going, and then he’s got somewhat of a hole, and he just goes in it … I mean, what’s the point? It’s lap three.”
Mayer had the lead for the restart, but began to show signs of a tire rub after getting door-slammed by Tay. Gray. The tire eventually went down, and he was forced onto pit road where his problems were compounded by a speeding penalty
Hill, who everyone expected to be the dominant driver on Saturday, nearly lost control in the middle of the pack and fell back to protect the car. Hill’s RCR teammate Jesse Love went on to win Stage 1 ahead of Caruth, Retzlaff, Tay. Gray, Allgaier, Creed, Kvapil, Sanchez, Clements, and Chastain.
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Stage 2
During the stage break, there was a scary moment on pit road as Tay. Gray hit one of his own crew members, knocking Alex Morgan (tire carrier) to the ground. Thankfully, he quickly got up and appeared okay. Gray was sent to the rear of the field for a safety violation due to the runaway tire that Morgan was attempting to retrieve.
The rest of the stage went green, and the battle for the stage win was a good one. Caruth pulled an impressive three-wide pass to take the top spot, and went on to win the stage over JR Motorsports teammates Allgaier and Kvapil. It was then Day, B. Jones, S. Smith, Hill, Retzlaff, Creed, and Love.
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Stage 3
The final stage went green with 65 laps to go with Sawalich and Kvapil out front, but Kvapil quickly moved ahead. However, Kvapil’s race was about to come to an end after contact with Day sent both of them and Allgaier into the outside wall. As the leaders crashed, Hill moved into the race lead.
Allgaier and Kvapil were both unable to continue, while Day lost a lap. He radioed to his Hendrick Motorsports team that he had a tire going down.
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Hill was in command with Love and Creed as Clements spun to the inside of the backstretch. The race remained green, but not for long as Cody Ware’s car slowed, throwing debris all over the frontstretch.
The race resumed with 32 laps to go with the RCR teammates side-by-side. As they raced, Love actually clipped Hill and nearly turned him as he tried to get back in line. That opened the door and Chastain drove from the bottom of a three-wide battle to take the lead.
“The way it looks, (Love) doesn’t want either of us to win, so that’s fine,” radioed Hill.
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Back in the pack, Caruth pulled off an impressive save after getting squeezed into the wall by his teammate. Soon after, that same teammate (Smith) began to spin with a cut tire. About ten cars piled into the melee. Along with Smith, Ruggiero, Ellis, Scott, Sawalich, Gray, Leitz, Poole, Staropoli, and Maggio were all swept up in the wreck.
Chastain remained out front, and led the field to the restart with 14 laps to go. The caution flew soon after as Josh Williams wrecked hard after contact from Mayer while trying to avoid Caruth, who had a flat tire. Chastain retained control as the race was red-flagged with ten laps to go.
The green flag was back out with six laps remaining. Chastain held the lead until two laps when Hill took the lead away. Chastain fought back on the final lap, but it ended in contact as Hill attempted to block the move.
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While Creed took the checkered flag, Hill still leaves Atlanta with the championship points lead.
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