Even rain couldn’t stop Corey Heim en route to his fifth victory of the Truck Series season. Heim led 55 of 70 laps and swept the stages in a dominant drive that kept him ahead of Christian Eckes on the track, even as Eckes remains ahead by 32 points in the standings after recovering from a bad pitstop to finish third.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Heim, though, as he fell back at the very start of the race and was forced to battle up to the front throughout Stage 1. He said that, even after losing those positions, he never lost faith in crew chief Scott Zipadelli, and nor did he as the rain fell late and forced a restart with four laps to go after over a half-hour under the red flag.
“I think Scott and I, from the very beginning, we’ve had such a close bond. He just does such a good job giving me fast Safelite Tundra TRD Pros every week,” Heim said. “This week was no different, this thing is badass, we got a badass group week in and week out.
“I’m so proud of these guys, we have about five wins, I never thought I’d get that many in a single season, so I’m pumped. It’s awesome.”
The win improves Heim’s position from last year by one place, where he finished a painful runner-up to Kyle Busch, making a part-time start in the series, when Busch made the pass in the closing laps. Heim said nothing can truly vindicate the finish, though.
“No, not at all. You go out to win every race,” he explained. “I look back at last season and we had a lot more potential. But focus on 2024, we’ve got all the potential in the world right now.”
While Heim may still be ruing a runner-up from last season, Grant Enfinger, who finished second this year, was happy with his performance.
“Very, very proud of this [No.] 9 bunch. This is a very, very good truck, the best truck I’ve had all year,” Enfinger said. “Wish we could’ve pulled it off. I feel like from an execution standpoint – restarts, pit road – everything went well today. We’ve still got ways to improve, we’ve still got some fine details to work on, but very happy about how things are going heading into the Playoffs.”
Enfinger acknowledged that he wasn’t able to take full advantage of the restart after the rain, but it ended up not going his way.
“I just felt like the outside row would stay organized and I was counting on the bottom row getting unorganized to where we could clear them right on the front straightaway, no doubt could’ve made a move,” Enfinger explained.
“Still feel like that was probably my best play, just didn’t pan out very well. Ross did a great job pushing Christian, they did a great job keeping that bottom lane connected, and we just didn’t have enough to clear them before we went into Turn 1.”
Christian Eckes experienced the chaos of the restart first-hand. Starting on the bottom line, he was pushed heavily by Ross Chastain, driving the No. 45 Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports, and turned sideways. Never letting off the throttle, Eckes continued going straight and maintained position to finish third.
Watching the replay, Eckes initially thought he came up on Ross Chastain to cause the incident, but changed his mind to say it was a bad push by Chastain.
“That didn’t go very well. It was just a bad push, I guess,” Eckes summed it up. “Proud of the team effort, we were 17th or so on that one restart and came back to finish third. So proud of everybody.”
Taylor Gray finished fourth with Ross Chastain himself rounding out the top five. Chase Purdy, Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Dean Thompson, and Rajah Caruth all scored top-ten finishes. Caruth managed to recover from a Turn 1 spin while battling Gray, managing to keep the truck off the wall and limiting the damage.
The Truck Series returns for the TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 19th. With that race, there are just two races remaining before the Playoff grid will be set. With another win to extend his total, there are still six spots available on points. Ty Majeski, Tyler Ankrum, Taylor Gray, Ben Rhodes, Grant Enfinger, and Tanner Gray currently hold those spots. Though he entered with a large points advantage, Majeski was unable to officially lock in with a battery problem that took him out of contention late, and he ultimately finished 31st.
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