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NASCAR race news
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Sheldon Creed won Saturday's Fleetio 200 at Darlington, opening the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase. The Cup Series' Southern 500 starts Sunday with Tyler Reddick on pole.
Background
The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and Cup Series both began their postseason 'Chase' playoffs at Darlington Raceway over the weekend. Qualifying for the Cup race was canceled due to weather, so the starting lineup was set by rule-book metrics. Sheldon Creed's win was his second career victory in the series.
How it unfolded
- Sep 5, 2026Sheldon Creed won the Fleetio 200 at Darlington, the opening race of the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase.
- Sep 5, 2026Cup Series qualifying and practice at Darlington were canceled after multiple lightning delays; starting lineup set by metrics.
- Sep 6, 2026Cup Series' Cook Out Southern 500 is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. ET, with Tyler Reddick on the pole.
Who’s saying what
- Crew Chief
- Luke Lambert, crew chief for Carson Hocevar, expressed frustration that last week's crash hurt their metric, saying 'It stinks just because our metric was bad from last week.'