Corey Heim passed Ty Majeski with 25 laps to go and survived multiple restarts at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Courses to score his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of the season and his fourth overall.
Heim started on the pole for the 67-lap race and battled the rain, Thorsport teammates Ben Rhodes and Majeski and multiple late cautions to grab the win and add to his regular season points lead.
Zane Smith finished second at Mid-Ohio for the second straight year, and he now has a streak of five top two finishes on road courses in the series. Christian Eckes and Stewart Friesen finished third and fourth, respectively, while Rhodes came back to finish fifth after mid-race contact with Majeski sent the pair spinning into the grass.
Matt Crafton, Majeski, Matt DiBenedetto, Nick Sanchez and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top 10.
“Unbelieveable, I mean we came here with high expectations.” An exciting Heim said to Jamie Howe of Fox Sports 1. “I felt like I did a good job just staying out front. But I put in the work to go from a third place truck to a winning truck.”
After more than an hour delay, trucks were running pace laps in rainy, treacherous conditions that saw multiple drivers spin before the race even began. Heim eventually led the field to the green flag in a single file start, but the caution was out just moments later due to a lack of visibility.
Multiple trucks spun in multiple places after the race resumed, and Majeski passed Heim to grab the lead on lap six. On lap seven, Tanner Gray spun in the keyhole to bring out the caution. The next restart was on lap 11, and Heim passed Majeski for the lead with Rhodes following in close pursuit.
Heim went off track in turn 13 on lap 12, giving the lead to Rhodes. On Lap 13, Carson Hocevar and Colby Howard brought out the third caution after spinning in the keyhole. The green waved with four laps to go in stage one, and Rhodes won the stage under caution after Conner Jones and Spencer Boyd got stuck in the gravel.
Mired back in 30th, Crafton and the No. 88 team elected to stay out under the stage caution as everyone pitted to remove the rain tires. Crafton led the field to the start of stage two, but Rhodes made quick work of him to retake the top spot.
Majeski took the lead from Rhodes with nine laps to go in stage two and would lead the rest of the way to pick up the stage win.
On lap 42, Heim passed Majeski in what proved to be the final lead change of the race. While battling for second a lap later, Majeski and Rhodes got together and spun. This allowed Smith and Eckes to move into the top three.
The caution waved four more times in the final stage for incidents involving Jack Wood, Will Rodgers, Austin Wayne Self, Bret Holmes, Rajah Caruth and Dean Thompson.
Faced with a NASCAR-record 10 cautions at Mid-Ohio and a handful of late restarts, Heim held off all challenges from the field to score his first Truck win on a road course.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races again in two weeks’ time at Pocono Raceway on Saturday (July 22) at 12 p.m. ET. TV coverage will be provided by FS1.
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