Corey Heim rocks field to win Truck race at Rockingham
- TSN MOTORSPORTS INSIDER
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
Despite being a part-time driver, Corey Heim demonstrated his ability to dominate until the final four laps of Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway.
Heim led a personal-best of 178 laps, securing his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season and the 25th of his career, ranking him fifth all-time.
In the closing laps, he had to contend with skewed steering and chattering tires in his No. 1 Toyota to successfully defend against a determined challenge from his Tricon Garage teammate, Kaden Honeycutt, in the No. 11 Tundra.
Heim secured last year’s series title in the No. 11 car but is not defending it this season as he pursues part-time opportunities across all three of NASCAR’s national series.
Despite this, Heim achieved a sweep of the first two stages of a race for the 13th time in his career. His victories in the two stages on Friday marked his 44th and 45th stage wins.
Heim is the first driver this season to earn maximum points in a race within any of the top three series, having won both stages and recorded the fastest lap — 22.965 seconds on Lap 174.
Additionally, Heim claimed his second consecutive win in the Triple Truck Challenge, earning a $100,000 bonus, and will compete for $500,000 next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. This bonus is awarded to a driver who wins all three races in “The Trip.”
“Yeah, it means a lot,” Heim remarked regarding the potential prize. “I don’t really think about it in the truck, but reflecting on it, it would be remarkable to be the first person to sweep all three if we manage to achieve it.
“There is significant motivation for the team in the 1 camp with (sponsor) Celsius as our primary sponsor next week, so I’m very excited about that.”
Beyond the statistics, Heim had to utilize his complete range of racing skills over the final four laps to fend off Honeycutt, who was striving for his first victory. Experiencing a vibration akin to a tire losing air, Heim skillfully navigated traffic as the race approached its conclusion.
Honeycutt reached Heim’s bumper with three laps remaining and briefly took the lead on the white-flag lap, but Heim aggressively maneuvered into Turn 1, using teammate Tanner Gray to impede Honeycutt’s progress.
Exiting Turn 4 on the final lap, Heim maintained a narrow lead and crossed the finish line 0.090 seconds ahead of the car he drove to last year’s championship.
“I felt like I didn’t push it any harder than any previous run or cause any additional damage to the right front, but suddenly, with four laps to go, my truck started to behave erratically. I had to steer more to the right down the straightaway to keep it straight,” Heim explained.
“My wheel was angled about 20 degrees to the right, and it was chattering badly in the corners. I thought, ‘Oh, boy, here we go; we’re going to lose this one in the worst way possible.’
“But it held on, and I had to use a few lapped trucks to keep him at bay. I respect Kaden for racing me clean. I did what was necessary at the end, but it was the first win for (sponsor) Robinhood and my first win in my J’s (Jordan Brand) — my race shoes.”
Honeycutt was gracious after narrowly missing victory.
“I tried to push Tanner (Gray) as far as I could, hoping he would move to the bottom or something, but I’m not sure what else I could have done differently other than running us down in the marbles,” Honeycutt said.
“I didn’t want to do that, but I wanted to ensure that either me or Corey won the race, and I obviously wanted to win it, but it’s good that our Tricon organization could achieve that. Our team has been performing exceptionally well this year — across all teams. I think this demonstrates that. Corey’s done great with the 5 and the 1.
“Fast race trucks every week, and I believe our time will come.”
Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs finished third. Stewart Friesen secured fourth place, followed by Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum (last year’s Rockingham winner), Corey LaJoie, Ty Majeski, pole winner Jake Garcia, and Cole Butcher.
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