Corey Heim wins for the 11th time this season – Tricon Garage Photo
NASCAR Wire Reports – While Corey Heim continued his propensity for sweeping stages and races, a missed shift Friday at Martinsville Speedway likely cost Layne Riggs a chance to race for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship.
Heim won both stages in the Slim Jim 200 on the way to his 11th victory of the season, extending his own series record. The driver of the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota led a race-high 77 laps and beat Kaden Honeycutt to the finish line by 0.451 seconds in overtime.
Heim, who already had qualified for the championship race with a win at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, simply wanted to maintain momentum into the final week of the season.
“I don’t want to jump to any conclusions yet,” Heim said of his title prospects. “We’ve got a big race next week…
“We wanted to capitalize on our day and make the best of it. Once we got out front, we showed that we really had something to work with here. We’ve got a big one next week to close it out. It’s going to be tough, but I’m confident we can do it.”
Two playoff contenders saw their hopes of advancing to the Championship 4 evaporate long before the race ended. On Lap 73, side-by-side contact with Honeycutt’s Toyota cut the left rear tire on Rajah Caruth’s Chevrolet.
Caruth slowed suddenly and spun in Turn 1, crashing into the outside wall with enough force to knock him out of the race. Having entered the elimination event 14 points above the cut line, Caruth was suddenly out of the running for the title.
The Craftsman Truck Series will crown a 2025 champion next Friday at Phoenix Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).