Sheldon Creed was subject to a lot of public criticism by his team after the events of Martinsville. Team owner Richard Childress himself called the driver of the #2 stupid for all the media to hear. The 26-year-old was publicly chastised by other members of RCR as well. It was a horrible look for the team which was slammed by fans and experts alike for their unprofessional behavior. Here is how things went down. 

The only way Sheldon Creed could have qualified for the championship race was to win in Martinsville. He saw an opportunity to go for it on the last lap and did what every motorsports athlete would do. Unfortunately, things went sideways on track and he ended up taking his teammate Austin Hill out and lost the race to Justin Allgaier. After the backlash, one of the RCR executives who behaved rudely with Creed came out and owned up to his actions.

High-ranking Richard Childress Racing official left red-faced

As the driver of the #2 climbed out of his car exhausted, RCR’s Vice President of Competition Andy Petree confronted him. Creed was visibly tired and disappointed when Petree added to his misery by screaming in his face and walking off. This reaction was met with stark criticism from the NASCAR community and the RCR executive now seems to have learned his lesson.

In an appearance on NASCAR Hub, Andy Petree admitted to charging Sheldon Creed without having full knowledge of the facts. It turns out that the #2 car was compromised and Creed could not turn to get out of his teammate’s way. So at the end of the day, it was not the 26-year-old’s fault at all.

“They got together and bent the bumper bar on Sheldon Creed’s car going into 3 on the last corner and when he got down there he actually couldn’t turn the car left. And you see the tire smoke come off of it and that’s what ran him up in front of Austin Hill. That’s why you should keep your mouth shut until you really understand all the facts and that’s not what I did. I wasn’t real proud of the way I handled that after the race,” Andy Petree said.

This revelation is definitely not a good look for Richard Childress. The 78-year-old felt that Sheldon Creed was looking after his own interests and not those of the team at the time. The legendary team owner has been criticized by a good many people since Saturday including Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes to Sheldon Creed’s defense

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According to the former Cup Series driver, the only thing on Sheldon Creed’s mind was to win the race. Junior said that he just did not buy into Richard Childress’ logic of the #2 driver blocking the #21 to further his own agenda at the expense of the team.

“The only thing in Creed’s mind in that very moment when he slams on the brakes in the middle of three and four, is ‘How do I get there before everyone else?’ And, ‘How do I get my car off this corner?’ You know, I just don’t buy it. I don’t buy that he did this intentional thing to hurt his teammate. I don’t believe that, at that moment, there was spite leading the charge in terms of emotion and decision-making,” the JR Motorsports owner said on an episode of The Dale Jr. Download podcast.

Martinsville might have been a disaster for RCR but as far as Junior is concerned, it was a good day. He has two JRM drivers in the championship race and a golden opportunity to win the Xfinity Series for the first time since 2018. Is a fourth Xfinity championship on the cards for Dale Jr’s outfit?

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