NASCAR News: Corey Heim wins Truck race in Texas

Corey Heim continued to add to his accolades in the NASCAR Truck Series as the Georgia-native won his third Truck Series race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway.

Heim had the dominate truck – leading at one point by nearly 16 seconds – and survived several late race restarts to claim his first win at Texas and 14th of his NASCAR Truck Series career.

Heim is the youngest 14-time winner in Truck Series history, and ties Johnny Benson for the third-most Truck Series wins in Toyota’s history.

Heim was barely ahead when caution stalled the first overtime almost before it began. The restart in the second extra period packed a surfeit of drama into the final two laps.

Starting second to Heim’s outside, Ben Rhodes held his ground, racing side-by-side through the first two corners. As the drivers navigated Turn 3, both had to lift off the gas, allowing Daniel Hemric to make a strong move to the inside at the start/finish line.

But Heim pressed the accelerator, charged between trucks and surged into the lead, clearing Hemric and Rhodes in Turn 1. Heim pulled away slightly to beat Hemric to the stripe by 0.279 seconds, as Rhodes lost momentum and faded to sixth.

“I wasn’t going to let that one get away from me,” said Heim, who led a race-high 96 of 174 laps and gained an extra Playoff point by winning Stage 2. “I’ve given up too many this year so far. “I’m just overwhelmed—so many restarts there at the end and guys were taking me three-wide.

“I wasn’t going to let them take it from me… They tried to take me three-wide into (Turn) 1, and I drove until I couldn’t any more.”

At age 22, Heim is the youngest driver in series history to reach 14 wins. Friday night‘s Truck Series race also was the first to go to overtime after 21 straight events had ended in regulation.

Rajah Caruth ran third behind Heim and Hemric, with Tyler Ankrum finishing fourth and Tanner Gray fifth.

Rhodes took issue with the way Heim raced him into Turn 3 on the white-flag lap in the second overtime.

“I was a little upset, and even still watching the replay, with how I was run in 3 and 4 by Heim,” said Rhodes, a two-time series champion. “Basically, to see him come off the bottom, and the groove is extremely narrow here. That’s why all those wrecks kept happening.

“I had to lift. I think he had to lift, and that’s what opened up for three-wide down the frontstretch and why we’re in sixth place.”

All told, the race produced 11 cautions for 57 laps, a testament to the intense action at the Fort Worth track.

Texas Motor Speedway, arguably the most treacherous 1.5-miler on the schedule, claimed three early victims. On Lap 31, rookie Giovanni Ruggiero drove too low entering the tri-oval, clipped the grass below the apron and shot up the track, collecting Brandon Jones and Kaden Honeycutt in a violent collision.

The impact ripped the right front wheel off Jones’ Toyota and destroyed Honeycutt’s Chevrolet.

“It is just so hard to see the grass here on the frontstretch when you’re behind other trucks,” Ruggiero said. “I definitely misjudged it on my part. Really unfortunate for all of my guys.

“We had a really fast JBL Tundra—definitely not how I wanted tonight to go. Just have to keep digging and come back stronger for the next one.”

On Lap 52, Layne Riggs spun underneath the Ford of reigning series champion Ty Majeski. Thirteen laps and two cautions later, Riggs was off course again after contact with Luke Fenhaus’ Ford, this time bouncing through the frontstretch grass and tearing the nose off his F-150.

Andres Perez de Lara backed into the Turn 2 wall on Lap 57, damaging his Chevrolet beyond repair. Before the end of the second stage, the race was peppered with six cautions, with the longest green-flag run coming from the start of the race to a competition caution at Lap 20.

The tenor of the race changed after the second stage break. During a 60-lap green-flag run that began on Lap 87 and featured a cycle of green-flag pit stops, Heim built a lead of 15.794 seconds before Frankie Muniz crashed in Turn 2 on Lap 147 to cause the eighth caution of the night.

From that point, the race reclaimed its frenetic character and required the two overtimes to get to the finish. The result left Heim 46 points ahead of second-place Chandler Smith in the series standings.

COREY HEIM

Finishing Position: 1st

What were you thinking on that final restart?

“Man, I can’t believe how many restarts we got there in the end, but went into turn one pretty much in the worst possible position I could be in – three wide middle. I knew I was either going to win or wreck. I was willing to take that risk. We were really dominate in the race today, so I kind of laid it all out there. I knew the risk, but I wanted the reward. Super thankful for TRICON Garage, Toyota, Safelite – it is just so cool to have this National Foster Care Month scheme. It is a really cause we are going for and to open it up with a win in the month of May is really cool.”

What does it feel like to have a truck as dominate as you had today?

“I think inevitably there was going to be a caution at some point. It seems like in these stage threes, people either wreck on pit road or under green, blow a tire, something like that. I kind of knew it was coming when it first came out with 26 to go. It was halfway expected, but the cautions after that we had the last eight or 10 laps were pretty brutal. I can’t say I expected that one, but regardless, I knew the risk of putting it all out there to win and how big these runs are at Texas, but I was willing to take that risk.”

Texas Truck Race Results