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Corey Heim Wins 2nd Truck Series Race of 2024 at Kansas

It’s Heim time for the second time this season.

Corey Heim captured his second NASCAR Truck Series victory of 2024 at Kansas Speedway in the Heart of America 200 after a dominant performance in his TRICON no. 11 Toyota Tundra. Heim led the most laps, with 77 laps and won his seventh career Truck Series race by 1.088 seconds.

“Can’t say enough about these guys at TRICON Garage,” Heim said. “Top to bottom, we executed so well today. What a truck. [I] Definitely struggled with being free for most of the race, so I can’t say it was easy, but even with the balance I had, this truck has so much more potential to get better. I’m kind of out breath right now. It was a handful for the last 30 laps. I just really wanted this one.”

Zane Smith gained in the closing laps but was unable to catch Heim in the end, finishing second. Smith led 28 laps and won stage two but fell behind in stage three after his stage-break pitstop put him back. At one point, he fell behind Heim by four seconds before falling about a second short.

“I was surprised how much we caught him there at the very end, just can’t lose eight spots on pit road is a good start,” Smith said. “[I] Appreciate everyone at MHR, Instacoat, and Team Chevy, but just felt like that one got away there.”

Smith’s McAnally-HIlgemann Racing teammate and former Kansas winner Christian Eckes crossed the line third, and Kaden Honeycutt completed a career-best run in his No. 45 Chevrolet Silverado, finishing fourth. In the closing stages, Honeycutt battled Heim for the lead but fell behind during final green flag pit stops. Brett Moffitt completed the top five in his 2024 Truck Series series debut for the TRICON No. 1.

“It was so awesome,” Honeycutt said. “I’m finally so glad I was able to run up front with these guys and experience what it was like to run up front, experience what I was supposed to do in situations that I was put in. I need to handle a little bit better situations like racing the [No.] 11 there. I should have been more aggressive on the restart to take the lead from them.”

Nick Sanchez, Tanner Gray, Dean Thompson, Daniel Dye and Matt Crafton rounded out the top 10.

Chase Purdy led the field to green, with Ty Majeski to his outside. As Purdy cleared the No. 98 with his Spire Motorsports teammate Connor Mosack following, Majeski fell into a five-wide battle and suffered a flat left front tire and rode the turn one wall to bring out the first caution of the night. Majeski would finish last of the 33 entries.

Purdy lost the lead to former Truck Series champion Smith on lap eight, but Heim swiftly passed Smith for the lead four laps later on lap 12.

Heim maintained the lead over Smith to win stage one, his second of the 2024 season. Eckes, Purdy and Honeycutt completed the top five.

Eckes and Honeycutt passed Heim in the pits, and Eckes prevailed initially on the stage two restart, but his MHR teammate, Smith, took the lead for the second time in the race on lap 40.

Smith stayed ahead of the No. 11 to take the stage two victory. The top five finishing order for stage two consisted of Eckes, Honeycutt and Purdy, respectivley.

Smith lost seven positions on his pit stop while Eckes retook the lead to start the third stage. His lead wouldn’t last long as Sanchez took the lead momentarily on lap 69. On the next lap, Heim returned to the front with Honeycutt right behind.

Honeycutt remained behind the No. 11, but the No. 45 pit crew had a slower stop, falling to fourth. Heim undercut one lap on most of the top five, and after the pitstop cycle Heim had a four-second lead.

Heim gave up a few seconds to Smith in second but stayed ahead of the No. 91 to close out the win.

Layne Riggs and Cam Waters battled deeper in the field for 18th after contact between to the two coming off of turn four. Riggs crossed ahead of Waters, but the two argued passionately on pit road following the race.

“I think he was just upset with the last corner,” Waters told Frontstretch. “We got in there side-by-side. I got a bit free and got into him. He’s probably just a bit s—–y. He didn’t have the best night. He was slow all night, and it is what it is. I had a lot of fun tonight, so I was actually going up to him to say ‘Good job. Cool race.'”

Heart of America 200 Results

The Truck Series returns next week at Darlington Raceway for throwback weekend on Friday, May 10, at 7:30 p.m. ET. FOX Sports 1 will provide coverage.

Wyatt Watson has followed NASCAR closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretchas a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt writes breaking NASCAR news and contributes to columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monster. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media and serves as an at-track reporter, collecting exclusive content for Frontstretch.

Wyatt Watson can be found on Twitter @WyattGametime