Sheldon Creed / No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Toyota GR Supra Preview – Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway

No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Toyota GR Supra News and Notes:

  • CREED AT KANSAS: Sheldon Creed heads to Kansas Speedway for the Kansas Lottery 300 to kick off his 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) Playoffs campaign. Creed has publicly regarded Kansas as one of his favorite racetracks on the NXS schedule due to its multi-lane race and his aptitude for intermediate racetracks. In his two NXS starts at Kansas, Creed has scored one top-five, one top-10, and a best finish of third, which came in last year’s event. Creed also made his first and only NASCAR Cup Series start at Kansas in 2023, where he finished 34th.
  • BRISTOL RECAP: Creed put together another strong run in Bristol, earning his seventh top-10 in the past eight races. After starting 14th, Creed quickly moved into the top-10, earning a third-place finish in stage one, which he followed up with a fifth-place finish in stage two. Creed took the lead shortly after the start of the final stage and led 28 laps before relinquishing the lead to eventual winner Cole Custer on the final restart of the race. Creed finished second, which marked his sixth runner-up finish of the season.
  • PLAYOFFS: Creed enters the first race of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs as the ninth-seed, three points below the cutline. Creed’s fifth-place finish in the regular season standings marked the best of his Xfinity Series career. The career-best performance earned him six playoff points to give him a grand total of seven going into the round of 12.
  • TOP FIVE LEADER: Creed’s runner-up finish in Bristol bolstered his position as the series leader for top-five finishes in the Xfinity Series with 13, which also gives him an impressive 50% top-five rate on the season.
  • STUCK ON SILVER: Creed’s second-place finish at Bristol marked his 13th career second-place finish in the Xfinity Series. With his sixth second-place finish of the year, Creed has now overtaken James Hylton for the all-time record across all three series for second-place finishes without a win. Remarkably, 54% (13/24) of his career top-fives have been second-place results.
  • FRIENDS OF JACLYN FOUNDATION: Founded in 2005, the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization with a mission to improve the quality of life for children with pediatric brain tumors and other childhood cancers while raising awareness for said diseases. The Friends of Jaclyn Foundation aims to improve the quality of life for children and their families battling pediatric brain tumors and other childhood cancers by pairing them with local teams, clubs, and community groups. FOJ has currently made over 1000 adoptions and their mission is to continue to raise awareness through our Adopt-A-Child, Safe on the Sidelines, and Guardian Angel Programs.
  • ON THE PITBOX:Crew chief Sam McAulay will lead the No. 18 Toyota GR Supra crew this season. Despite his rookie status, McAulay is an established mind at JGR as he joined the organization in 2007 and worked his way up the ranks from intern to lead race engineer for the No. 11 Cup Series entry of Denny Hamlin. Since the start of his tenure on the No. 11 in 2017, McAulay has contributed to 25 victories, including three Daytona 500 wins and a Coke 600 win as a crew chief when he filled-in for the suspended Chris Gabehart in 2022.
  • JGR AT KANSAS: Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has won an impressive nine of the last 12 Xfinity Series races at Kansas Speedway, including last year’s Kansas Lottery 300 which was won by John Hunter Nemechek. In total, JGR has earned 12 wins, 21 top-fives, 37 top-10s, 1441 laps led, and seven poles at Kansas.
  • FOLLOW ALONG:Follow along for updates and a behind-the-scenes look at Creed’s 2024 season.

X:@sheldoncreedI Facebook: Sheldon CreedI Instagram:@Sheldoncreed I Website: sheldoncreedracing.com I YouTube: Sheldon Creed

  • RACE INFO: Coverage of this weekend’s Xfinity Series race at Kansas Speedway is scheduled for Saturday, September 28th, at 4:00 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN Radio, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Sheldon Creed, Driver of the No. 18 Friends of Jaclyn Toyota GR Supra:

“The playoffs kick off this week. What are you looking to achieve going into Kansas?”

“Kansas is one of my favorite racetracks. It’s probably my second favorite right behind Darlington so I have high hopes going into this weekend. From here on out, every qualifying session, stage point, and race mean more than ever, so the pressure is on to execute. Ideally, I’d like to leave Kansas with good stage points, a strong finish, and hopefully even a win. There’s a lot of talented guys in this field so I know we need to rise to the occasion if we’re going to have a shot at this championship. It all starts in Kansas and we’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in a good position heading into Talladega.”

JGR PR