LOCUST GROVE, Ark. — Nearly every team in Batesville Motor Speedway’s back pit area had either loaded up or already departed after Saturday’s slog of a Topless 100 program, but Tim McCreadie was in no such rush.

Still wearing his blue but dirty Rocket1 Racing firesuit with the purple Hoosier Racing Tire neckband strapped around his neck, the Watertown, N.Y., veteran welcomed anybody— namely fans seeking pictures or autographs — praising him for winning one of the more exacting races on the circuit.

It didn’t matter that McCreadie had been exhausted after the hour-long Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature that tested his 50-year-old self on another scorching Arkansas day pushing 100 degrees. He wanted to soak in the moment that he and the Rocket Chassis house car team have sought after for five months.

“I’m wore out. I won’t lie, this place when it’s that fast and this hot, it’s just hard,” McCreadie said. “This car, when it’s this good, you drive hard. I’m not saying other brands of cars are easier. It’s this one, when you can drive it hard, it’s fun. I could drive it hard from the original green. I was trying to be smooth, but I wasn’t taking many laps off, you know what I mean?

“At the end of the day, it’s very rewarding,” he added. "It’s hard to win these races. I know (Ricky) Thornton may not say that, but it’s hard to win these races. I know (the late Scott) Bloomquist maybe didn’t say that either. I know for a guy like me, I haven’t won as many as I’d like to. It’s very rewarding when it happens.”

Above all Saturday, when he finally snapped a 38-race winless tenure with the Richards-led team, McCreadie could smile without having to wrack his bran where he could’ve done better. 

McCreadie’s been open about his transition to Rocket1 Racing, how he’s remained grateful to be the driver of the powerhouse operation yet also how restless he’s gotten as each race passes without that first victory. There was no restlessness Saturday for McCreadie, who finally saw everything come together for his first victory since his final Paylor Motorsports victory in Feb. 3’s Lucas Oil Series event at All-Tech Raceway in Lake City, Fla.

“Driving for (Mark Richards) was going to show me two things: Can I drive anymore or should I look at something else in life?” McCreadie said. “I still need to look because I know I’m not young anymore. At the end of the day, I know I can still do it because he’s given me a shot in this equipment that’s amazing. It makes me want to run more. And I hope I can win more for him and the team.”

VIDEO: Highlights from Saturday's Topless 100 finale at Batesville. 

McCreadie’s go-ahead pass for the win Saturday technically didn’t transpire under green-flag conditions, but rather by virtue of Thornton’s lap-65 flat tire. McCreadie, of course, would’ve liked to pass Thornton under green, which he did once on lap 42. But after Friday’s preliminary night where he got called for jumping the start of the 30-lap, $5,000-to-win feature — a feature Thornton went on to win — McCreadie felt “maybe it was my time it’d work in my favor for a change.”

McCreadie also gave Thornton all he could seemingly handle Saturday despite losing the lead to the Lucas Oil Series points leader on lap 59. Pressuring Thornton and racing him hard may have also caused the flat tire.

"I know Thornton had a flat and he probably had a little better car at that point, but maybe it’s because we were pressuring him and we made him run harder than he wanted to run or whatever,” McCreadie said.

“I knew I had to get to the lead and put some pressure on him for him to get out of his comfort zone,” he added. “The best guys, when they’re in that comfort zone, they’re hard to beat. Like when I’m in the lead, once Ricky had the flat, I did my best to not rip the right-rear off the car. Drive hard, but drive smooth at the same time.

McCreadie also credited crew chief Danny White for pointing him in the right direction down the stretch, saying White “did a great job on the signals,” especially when he signaled McCreadie to “move down a half groove” with roughly 20 laps left. Runner-up Jonathan Davenport gave chase then, but couldn’t close in to make a move.

And when considering Rocket Chassis newly manufactured XR1.2 — Richards’ latest model of XR1s and first chassis redesign since 2016 — Saturday goes down as a true team victory for Rocket1 Racing. That part is very gratifying for McCreadie because he’s questioned whether the feedback he gives to his team is beneficial or not.

“Mark’s the mastermind like he’s been with this team his whole career,” McCreadie said. “I think, at times — and I’m sure he feels the same way — I can’t really convey what I’m looking for to him because we’ve never worked before. We worked together when we had Rocket cars, but it’s not like searching for an adjustment on a right-front or right-rear or a bar to get you sixth- or fifth-place to winning. He’s used to making those decisions.”

Last month at Huset’s Speedway’s Silver Dollar Nationals, McCreadie sensed that “if we can take one more chunk at it,” that could be the difference in putting him back in victory lane imminently. He also added then “we’re doing things on this car I don’t think other people do” and “that could put us in a different zone.”

Though winless before Saturday, McCreadie hadn't been terribly far off since joining Rocket1. Thirty-eight races into his time with the Shinnston, W.Va., team, he has 32 top-10s to show for. He’s also risen from ninth in the Lucas Oil Series standings and into a potential top-four playoff spot, now fourth in the tour’s points.

But Richards said he’d “been thinking on some ideas for a while now,” and the lack of results compounded with McCreadie “not feeling stuck enough in the racetrack” compelled the 63-year-old to redesign his XR1s that have largely stayed the same since debuting in 2016.

Richards’ new race car certainly brought the best out of McCreadie on Saturday. He could race Thornton on his level and unleash sliders without losing momentum required to keep pace with Thornton.

“That’s the beauty of this car. This car has been stuck enough … and really, the other car was getting there, too,” McCreadie said. “I was getting more comfortable with it. Whatever Mark did to that chassis made this thing stuck a little better, so now when I turn left down the straightaway to hang a slider on somebody, I don’t feel like I’m on top of the track.

"And I can complete the slider. The whole point of throwing the slider is not to hit the guy. Yeah, they weren’t perfectly clean, but he knows how to race that way. I really don’t. I didn’t grow up racing that way. I grew up racing a different way.”

Saturday marked the 12th race for McCreadie and team with the latest XR1 model. The team debuted the car July 22 at Davenport (Iowa) Speedway have produced a victory, four podium finishes and 10 top-10s in that 12-race span.

“And (Richards) was sick earlier this month, so a lot of those little things have slowed down the progress,” McCreadie said. “Tonight it came together. I don’t think we were the best car the entire race, but for the majority of it we were the best car. I did my job for once. Made one little mistake over there and got hung in traffic.”

McCreadie stayed as poised as ever all the way to the finish. It’s his first $50,000 victory and 100-lap triumph since June 2022’s Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. He probably doesn’t have to be told that either. 

McCreadie doesn’t like being reminded his win count has been low these last two years as Saturday marked his seventh victory over his last 146 starts. Yes, he feels urgency to recapture some of his younger, more-prominent ways, but McCreadie wouldn’t call it pressure.

“When you don’t win a lot and when it’s been since January, it’s not pressure … driving this car is no different than driving for myself and paying a bill at the end of the month,” McCreadie said. “Since I’ve started my career I’ve been told how hard this is. And this isn’t an easy life to be successful at this level, and sometimes try to have your hand in a team and vice versa. 

“Sometimes I haven’t had a lot of say in a lot of things, so when you’re struggling, you want to take more control, but you can’t because you have other people to answer to. It’s not always easy. There’s more pressure on me and myself than they’ll ever be driving this car.”

The more McCreadie has gone about his move to Rocket1 Racing, the more he relates it with his brief stint with Richard Childress Racing in 2007. McCreadie tried his hand NASCAR racing, but his average finish of 21st in six then-Busch Series starts just wasn’t enough for him to receive more opportunities. Like he was then with RCR, McCreadie faces high expectations with Richards, but still expects to perform.

“It’s no different than when I went down to Richard Childress,” McCreadie said. “I wasn’t down there just to drive a car that Dale Earnhardt had driven before he passed away. And a car that Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer was winning in. I went down there because I wanted to take a shot with one of the better teams in the country.

“It’s no different than if Keith Kunz called me tomorrow to drive a midget. I’ve never been afraid to not have an excuse. I don’t know if drivers look for excuses, but I’d much rather have it be my fault.”

Should McCreadie keep nights like Saturday up, a spot in the Lucas Oil Series four-driver playoff system is on the horizon. With five points races now left on the tour’s schedule before Sept. 21’s final regular season event at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway, McCreadie holds a 60-point advantage over Hudson O’Neal for the fourth and final playoff spot. 

“It gives us confidence. We’re trying to get into this top four,” McCreadie said. “The way the points shook out, leaving Florida I was down a little bit in points. Mark and I made a lot up, but Hudson’s in a powerhouse team. They’re a little ahead right now (with their car). Hudson and us have been even the last two or three races. … Unfortunately I don’t think it’s a battle between four cars. I think it’s four cars fighting for one spot. If we win, we could get in it. If not, we’ll be out like we were last year.

“There’s no secret we’ve been off a bit, but there’s no secret we needed to get better,” McCreadie added. “And (Richards has) made it better. Wish it would’ve been quicker.”

Wishing he could’ve caught on quicker is understandable, but at least McCreadie is getting the hang of it before season’s end.

“Yeah, exactly. At least we found it,” McCreadie said. “At the end of the day, this is very rewarding.”