Sheldon Creed And Sam Mayer To Drive Xfinity For Haas Factory Team in 2025

What’s Happening?

As reported by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports this morning, both Xfinity Series regulars Sheldon Creen and Sam Mayer have signed on to drive in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the rebranded Haas Factory team in 2025. Creed, who is still looking for his first win in the series, will move over and take on the number 00 car while Mayer will drive the renumbered 41 Ford for the team. The Haas Factory Team will not use the number 98 which is currently being piloted by Riley Herbst.

You Need To Know:

• For Creed, this will be his third team in three years. The Xfinity Series veteran has been driving full-time in the series since the 2022 season. He spent his first two years in the series with Richard Childress racing but moved to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2024 following a nasty breakup with RCR. Similar to Creed, Sam Mayer has been driving full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since 2022 for JR Motorsports. He currently has 6 wins to his credit and is looking to add to the count with Haas Factory in 2025.
• With both of these rides being filled, it means that their current drivers will find new homes come 2025. Defending Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer is a favorite to fill the lone Haas Factory Team entry in the NASCAR Cup Series. As for Riley Herbst, his future is not yet set into stone. For a while he had links to 23XI Racing but those rumors seemed to have cooled down. He has made a handful of starts in the Cup Series this year for the likes of Rick Ware Racing. He has also started races for Front Row Motorsports in the past.
• While fans somewhat expected this move by Creed, they’re largely perplexed as to why Mayer opted to jump ship. Mayer has had a decent enough career with JRM Motorsports and many fans are confused with this move.

We here at the Daily Downforce will keep you informed on this story as it develops.

The Main Characters

Haas Factory Team

The rebranded Haas Factory Team (currently operating as Stewart-Haas Racing) has gone through a lot of changes in the last year. With their franchise driver Kevin Harvick retiring at the end of the 2023 season, changes were bound to be made. Harvick infamously stated “They went from #4Ever to #4Ward to #4Sale in less than six months” when commenting on the announcement that SHR would effectively shut down.

Despite Championship driver and owner Tony Stewart pulling out of the fold, the team still intends to run a single car in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024. Though it is not official, the favorite for the ride is their current Xfinity Series driver, former Cup Series winner, and defending Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer. With Custer potentially moving back up to the NASCAR Cup Series, that meant that his 00 Xfinity Series ride had to be filled.

Taking over the helm of the championship caliber 00 seat is Sheldon Creed. He has been linked to the team for some time. The shocking piece of this puzzle is that Sam Mayer will be joining him, taking over the current 98 seat which will be rebranded to the 41.

Stewart-Haas previously used the number 41 in the Xfinity Series when they first expanded to 2 teams back in 2017.

Sheldon Creed

Sheldon Creed has been linked to Haas Factory Team for quite a while. Creed will be entering his fourth full-time season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025 and Haas will be the third team he has driven for in four years. Creed started his career with Richard Childress racing in 2022 but left the team following 2023. His reason for leaving was a general lack of competitiveness and a result of butting heads with team management, namely Andy Petree. He is currently winless in the series but has finished runner-up 10 times.

He currently races the number 18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. While his 2024 season hasn’t been bad by any means, it is largely viewed as underwhelming.

Sam Mayer

Like his future teammate, Sam Mayer has been a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series driver since the 2022 season. All three of his full-time seasons in the series he has piloted the number 1 car for JR Motorsports. Following Connor Zilisch’s signing to drive the 88 car for the team in 2025, there was a lot of speculation as to what the team had planned with Sam Mayer going forward.

Mayer currently has 6 wins to his credit in the series and he hopes to continue his winning ways in 2025.

Conclusion

That does it for this dose of news out of the Michigan International Raceway pressroom. What do you make of this move? How do you think Creed’s and Mayer’s careers will shape up from here? Let us know what you think! And keep it right here at DailyDownforce.com for all the latest news and silly season rumors out of the NASCAR pressroom!