Tricon Racing Photo
Heim battles back for record-breaking 10th Truck win of 2025 at Charlotte Roval
NASCAR Wire Service — Recovering from a first-lap crash in “Calamity Corner”, Corey Heim rallied to win Friday’s Ecosave 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, setting a single-season NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series record with his 10th win of the 2025 campaign, breaking the tie with Greg Biffle.
Driving a heavily taped No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota, Heim took the lead by staying out for an overtime restart while teammate Brent Crews, who had led a race-high 56 laps, pitted for fuel and tires.
“It was not easy today — I think it was probably the toughest one of the year so far,” said Heim, who secured a spot in the Oct. 31 Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway. “Just shows the resilience of this Tricon team. They fixed it up so good for me after that incident on the first lap — just kind of out of our control.
“I thought we were done, honestly. The right front completely folded when it hit the wall over there.”
In fact, the race was just a few seconds old when three playoff drivers tangled in Turn 1, nicknamed “Calamity Corner” as the frequent scene of accidents at the 2.28-mile, 17-turn circuit.
Contact from Grant Enfinger sent second-place starter Layne Riggs spinning in a collision that knocked the No. 11 Toyota of Heim, the pole winner and runaway series leader, into the Turn 1 barrier.
All three trucks sustained damage, with Heim suffering a left-rear tire rub that required multiple pit stops to correct.
“We were not as good as we were in practice and qualifying after that damage,” said the 23-year-old Heim, who earned his first victory at the Roval and the 21st of his career, placing seventh all-time. “My steering wheel was about 45 degrees to the left, and we came down pit road like six times to try to get it back to at least somewhat where it was.”
As Heim worked his way back to the front after the accident, Crews dominated, though he short-pitted in both the first and second stages to set up track position after the breaks.
With Heim advancing to the Championship 4, the other seven playoff drivers left the opening race in the Round of 8 clustered together around the elimination line. Daniel Hemric (11th after starting from the rear) and Tyler Ankrum (ninth) are second and third in the standings, two points above the cutline.
Fourth-place finisher Rajah Caruth is fourth in the standings, just one point to the good over Riggs, two clear of defending series champion Ty Majeski and four ahead of Enfinger and Kaden Honeycutt, who won the first and second stages before finishing 14th.
Zilisch came home fifth in Friday’s race, followed by Josh Bilicki, Enfinger, Majeski, Ankrum and Mosack. Riggs finished 21st to drop below the cutline and was still steamed about the first-lap incident after the race.
“We just got wrecked by the 9 (Enfinger),” Riggs said. “I don’t really understand what his thought process is. People say you’re supposed to take advice from the veterans and learn from them of how to race, and they race the worst out of anybody.
“That’s twice this year we’ve gotten wrecked by the 9 truck – at Watkins Glen and here, both road courses, two separate incidents, two blatantly wrong on his part. We drug a sway bar arm off after that contact and just had a terrible handling truck the rest of the day.
“At the end, we were just going to try to salvage something, but something in the rear end housing broke, or a clutch started slipping, but I had no power there at the end.”
The Truck Series returns to action on Friday, Oct. 17, for the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).