2026 Bennett Transportation 250 Recap — Creed Wins as Chastain Bumps Hill Off the Lead
Sunday, February 22, 2026
The Short Version
Sheldon Creed won the Bennett Transportation and Logistics 250 at Atlanta after Ross Chastain bumped Austin Hill entering turn 3 on the final lap, knocking Hill sideways and giving Creed the lead. Creed held on to win by 0.309 seconds over Parker Retzlaff. Hill, who had dominated the race through Stage 1 and looked like the strongest car in the field, finished 12th after the contact.
What Happened
Jesse Love dominated Stage 1, leading 31 laps and winning it for his seventh career stage win — his sixth on a drafting track. The race ran in typical Atlanta fashion: multi-car runs forming and collapsing, position changing by the lap, and the field cycling through incident after incident. Seven cautions over 163 laps collected most of the field’s top contenders at different points.
The lap 105 incident ended the day for Carson Kvapil and Justin Allgaier — Corey Day got under Kvapil heading into turn 3 with a reported flat tire, and the contact sent Kvapil, Allgaier, and Day all into the wall. Three of the fastest cars in the O’Reilly field eliminated in the same incident with 58 laps to go.
Austin Hill won Stage 2 — the stage result from Rajah Caruth — and had led 34 laps by the time the final sequence began. He was the car to beat. Creed, Love, and Chastain were the cars around him.
The final lap decided everything. Entering turn 3, Chastain made contact with Hill’s left rear bumper — a deliberate bump that sent Hill wide and sideways. Hill’s No. 21 got loose, lost the lead, and fell from the front of the running order. Creed, who had been positioned right behind, drove through the gap and won. Chastain finished 6th. Hill finished 12th.
The Defining Moment
The final turn 3 entry, final lap. Chastain’s bump on Hill was the race in one moment. Before it, Hill was winning. After it, Creed had the lead and the win. The move was decisive, immediate, and unambiguous.
The One That Got Away
Austin Hill. He led 34 laps, won Stage 2, and was running at the front when the race was taken from him on the final lap. The contact from Chastain is what ended it — not a strategic miscalculation, not a tire issue, not a restart mistake. Hill drove a strong race and didn’t get the result. That’s the hardest kind of finish.
Numbers That Matter
- Winner: Sheldon Creed — No. 00 Chevrolet
- Margin of Victory: 0.309 seconds
- Cautions: 7 for 46 laps
- Lead Changes: 24 among 11 leaders
- Stage 1 winner: Jesse Love (31 laps led)
- Stage 2 winner: Austin Hill (34 laps led)
- Notable: Sam Mayer’s car caught fire post-race after Hill’s win celebration when he drove through the grass to congratulate Creed
Take
Creed’s win came with an asterisk the size of the Atlanta infield. He was in position when Chastain made the move, and he drove away to win — that part is unambiguous. But the race that Hill was running before turn 3 on the final lap earned a better result than 12th place. That’s plate racing. It doesn’t always pay out what it owes.
The Chastain-Hill moment is the kind of thing that follows a season. Creed has a win. Hill has a grievance. The O’Reilly field has a storyline. Atlanta delivered all three.
The lap 105 crash that took out Kvapil and Allgaier — two of the fastest cars in the series — also deserves a mention. That incident changed the complexion of the final 58 laps. Allgaier, who would go on to have one of the strongest seasons in the O’Reilly field, was one of several drivers who ran well at Atlanta and finished with nothing to show for it.
Notes
- Sam Mayer’s car caught fire post-race after he drove through the grass to congratulate Creed on his win
- Ross Chastain ran invitational (#32, 6th place); the bump on Hill was driver vs. driver contact between series regulars and an invitational entry
- Rajah Caruth finished 8th with 22 laps led — a quiet top-10 that didn’t generate headlines
- Jeremy Clements and Austin Green finished 17th and 18th, both completing all 163 laps on minimal resources