What happened
Running 3rd in the closing laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Sheldon Creed scraped the wall and damaged his right-front tire. The tire shredded as he began his final lap. Before the scrape, he was nearly five seconds behind the leader as the race neared its finish.
Creed said his grip faded toward the end of each run, making it difficult to maintain pace. He also described struggling to clear lapped traffic quickly enough.
What it cost
The contact cost Creed three finishing positions, from 3rd to 6th. He completed all 200 laps despite the damaged tire.
What could have been done differently
Creed needed to leave more clearance to the wall as grip fell away.