TRUCKS: Heim Recovers From Wreck to Break Single-Season Win Record

Photo: Danny Hansen, Lumen Digital Agency for Toyota

If I had a nickel for each time a driver hit the tire barriers on a start/restart at the Charlotte ROVAL only to drive back through the field to win, I’d have two nickels… which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

Corey Heim came to the checkered flag in Friday’s EcoSave 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL (the first Truck Series event at the purpose-built road course) with the victory, but within moments of the green flag dropping, things looked rather dire.

After contact between Grant Enfinger and Layne Riggs, the No. 9, No. 34, and No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro found themselves in the barrier in Turn 1. While the damage wasn’t extremely severe, the lack of a caution, and the sensitive nature of the NASCAR Truck Series vehicles, made a victory seem inconceivable for Corey Heim.

RACE RESULTS: NCTS EcoSave 250 at the Charlotte ROVAL

However, in the true nature of Heim and the TRICON Garage No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, especially this season, it didn’t take long for the Mobil 1-sponsored entry to land back on its feet and begin charging towards the front of the pack.

The Marietta, Georgia-native stalled out somewhere around third and was only able to match, not surpass, the top two trucks on the racetrack in the final run of the race – those being TRICON teammate Brent Crews and Layne Riggs.

But a late-race caution (for another TRICON Garage teammate, Toni Breidinger, running out of fuel and stopping on the racetrack), allowed Scott Zipadelli to pull together some fantastic strategy and put the No. 11 out front after keeping Heim on the racetrack.

In NASCAR Overtime, as chaos erupted behind him, Heim was able to drive away from his TRICON Garage teammates to secure the victory – his 10th of the season, making him the single-season wins leader in the NASCAR Truck Series.

“No. We had a pretty big incident there. Once the right front was buried in the fence, I thought we were pretty much done. It is honestly pretty wild that we didn’t have any completely break from that incident and have to roll around half the pace all day. It certainly wasn’t as good as it was in practice,” Heim said post-race. “I thought we were pretty lights out, and pretty much a p1 potential truck all the way through practice and qualifying but had to fight for it. I’m so thankful for this TRICON group and their resilience – to be able to make my steering wheel from 90 degrees left down the straightaways, all towed out and messed up, to a competitive truck there in the end, it is pretty incredible to say the least.”

Heim was able to outlast his TRICON Garage teammates Brent Crews and Gio Ruggiero over the final two laps of the event, winning by a margin of 1.338 seconds. Crews, driving the No. 1 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, earned a career-best result after leading a race-high 56 of 70 laps.

Ruggiero quietly put together a third-place finish this afternoon at the Charlotte ROVAL, marking his third consecutive top-five result on a road course in the NASCAR Truck Series – after strong results at Lime Rock Park and Watkins Glen International.

Rajah Caruth put together a strong result in fourth-place, while NASCAR Xfinity Series regular and 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of The Year contender Connor Zilisch rounded out the top-five, in a one-off effort for Spire Motorsports.

Josh Bilicki recorded a career-best sixth-place result, his best finish across any of NASCAR’s National Series, while Grant Enfinger was seventh, Ty Majeski eighth (despite a NASCAR Overtime game of bowling while transitioning onto NASCAR Turn 1), and Tyler Ankrum ninth.

After restarting on the front row for the two-lap shootout to the finish, Connor Mosack rounded out the top-10 in his No. 81 Chevrolet Silverado RST. Mosack will compete in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event, as well, driving for JR Motorsports.

Other drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs that failed to finish inside the top-10 include: Daniel Hemric (P11), Kaden Honeycutt (P14), and Layne Riggs (P21). Hemric finished just outside the top-10 after starting in the rear, Honeycutt was turned around on the final lap of the race from a spot in the top-five, and Riggs restarted third, but drifted back quickly on the final restart.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be taking a week off before returning to action for the middle race in the semi-final round of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs, taking place at Talladega Superspeedway on October 17, with second through eighth in points separated by just five markers.