Corey Heim shakes off pressure to win NASCAR Truck Series title
- Last updated: November 1, 2025 | 10:50 ..
The best man won on Friday night, but it was far from a foregone conclusion.
The statistics might suggest otherwise. In winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway, Corey Heim swept the first and second stages, led a race-high 100 of 161 laps and took the checkered flag 0.993 ahead of defending series champion Ty Majeski in a second overtime.
On the restart for the first attempt at overtime, however, Heim was buried in 10th place on the inside lane, but with four fresh tires from a pit stop under caution on Lap 150, he steered his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota to the bottom of the track and ran wide-open through the dogleg as the field spread out seven-wide into Turn 1.
Charging to the inside of Grant Enfinger's Chevrolet, Heim emerged from Turn 2 in second place, on the bumper of Majeski's Ford. Joe Shear Jr., Majeski's crew chief, had opted for two tires on the Lap 150 pit stop -- a move Majeski agreed was his only chance to retain the championship.
Instead, Heim claimed the title that had eluded him for the previous two seasons, and the weight of the world fell from his shoulders.
"I just am so grateful to be where I'm at," Heim said. "So thankful for the TRICON Garage, Toyota taking a chance on me years ago, (sponsors) Safelite, Mobil 1, Yahoo, Celsius, for every bit of their support.
"I was so stressed out ever since we went to the (Charlotte) Roval (where Heim won from the pole Oct. 3 to advance to the Championship 4). I've been, like, so terrible to talk to as a person, so stressed out.
"This is just such a relief, to say the least. So thankful for everybody."
Clearly, the pressure had gotten to Heim as he approached a championship he was supposed to win. Coming to Phoenix, the 23-year-old from Marietta, Ga., had posted 11 victories in 24 races. On Friday, he added a 12th, extending his series record.
When Heim took the lead from Chandler Smith on Lap 22, he completed a perfect record of leading laps in all 25 Truck Series races, a unique accomplishment. Heim finished the season with a record 1,625 laps led, eclipsing the mark of 1,533 set by Mike Skinner in 1996.
"I don't care if I was on hundred-lap tires, nobody was going to beat me tonight," asserted Heim, who won for the first time at Phoenix and the 23rd time in his career. "It wasn't going to happen. We struggled all weekend in practice a little bit. In qualifying we missed it a little bit. You can always trust (crew chief) Scott (Zipadelli) up on the box to do everything he can to put me in position to win the race. That's what he did.
"Drove it in deep until I couldn't anymore. Drove away with it."
Heim, however, wasn't in position to win the race until Connor Mosack hit the Turn 4 wall with just over two laps left in regulation to cause the sixth caution and send the race to overtime.
At that point, Scott Riggs was leading Heim by less than one second. Eliminated from the drivers' playoff on a tiebreaker last weekend at Martinsville, Riggs remained eligible for the owners' title, and had the race gone to conclusion in regulation, he and Heim likely would have split the two championships.
The caution changed everything. Heim already was challenging Majeski for the lead in the first overtime when a four-car wreck in Turn 4 that included playoff driver Tyler Ankrum necessitated a second try at an extra period.
After the restart on Lap 160, Heim cleared Majeski quickly and pulled away to win the race.
"Honestly just a little bit short," Majeski said. "Yeah, very close. Tonight, at portions of the run to the 11, I thought at times we were actually better than him. Overall, he was just too strong.
"I couldn't get a good enough restart to take advantage of where in the run my truck was better."
Playoff driver Kaden Honeycutt ran third, overcoming a first-lap penalty for changing lanes before the stripe at the start of the race.
Riggs came home fourth, followed by Rajah Caruth, Jake Garcia, Corey LaJoie, Smith, Tyler Reif (in his Truck Series debut) and Jack Wood.
Matt Crafton, retiring from full-time NASCAR racing after this season, was 13th in his last ride in the No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford.
Associated Press