After disqualifying last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Corey Heim rebounded to capture victory in St. Louis.
Heim won his fourth race of the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway after pulling away from the field on older tires following a late race pit cycle shuffle. Heim dominated stage three, leading most of his 65 laps led in the final stage. Heim earned his ninth career Truck Series victory and his second at Gateway. He is also the second winner of the Triple Truck Challenge, joining Nick Sanchez as a $50,000 winner.
Christian Eckes finished second for the third consecutive year at Gateway, finishing 1.854 seconds behind Heim with six laps fresher tires than the leader. Eckes maintained the points lead after finishing second in every stage.
Sanchez joined Eckes by placing third in every stage as well while Ty Majeski, the winner of stages one and two, finished fourth. Layne Riggs rebounded from starting 17th to finish fifth, his second top five of the season.
Chase Purdy, Ben Rhodes and Stewart Friesen finished sixth, seventh and eighth respectively, while Andres Perez De Lara and Luke Fenhaus rounded out the top 10 in their Truck Series debuts.
Majeski started on the front row with Eckes alongside, and Majeski led the entirety of the first green flag run of the race.
The first caution of the day was for Fenhaus spinning in turn one after contact on the inside of Bayley Currey.
On the first restart of the race, Eckes was able to complete the pass on Majeski for the lead. However, Eckes held onto the lead for only two laps as Majeski passed him back into turn one on lap 18.
Majeski went on to win stage one over Eckes. Sanchez, Friesen and Heim completed the top five for stage one.
Connor Mosack in the Niece Motorsports No. 45 and Tanner Gray in the TRICON Garage No. 15 stayed out on the track and inherited the front row, and Gray was able to take the lead on the restart.
Gray led the first green flag run of stage two. The caution flew for Colby Howard, who stayed out and suffered a blown tire after he sustained damage to his left front nose.
Sanchez and Tanner Gray battled for the lead on the restart on lap 55, but Rhodes made a three-wide move to the middle to take the lead.
Rhodes maintained the lead until lap 66 when ThorSport Racing teammate Majeski re-took the lead. He was able to hold off a charging Eckes for the stage two victory. Sanchez, Rhodes and Heim made up the rest of the stage two top five.
Heim on four tires and Tyler Ankrum on two tires made up the front row for the final stage restart. Heim would take the lead while Ankrum lost second to Majeski.
Heim began green flag pit stops early while Sanchez stayed out trying to trap Heim a lap down, but on lap 126, Heim caught Sanchez to unlap himself, and Sanchez pitted.
The yellow flag flew four laps later on lap 130 as Vicente Salas spun on the backstretch ahead of Heim. Tanner Gray was on pit road when the caution came out, but the driver of the No. 15 Toyota Tundra just rolled through to avoid penalty.
Heim stayed out and returned to the lead and shared the front row with Majeski for the restart with 23 laps to go. Heim ran Majeski up the track a little bit to clear the No. 98.
Majeski fell into a battle for second with Eckes and Sanchez, with both passing Majeski, and Sanchez continued that battle with Eckes, allowing Heim to take the victory.
NASCAR Truck Series Toyota 200 Results
The Truck Series will take a few weeks off before returning at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday, June 28 at 8 p.m. ET. Coverage will be provided by FOX Sports 2.
About the author
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
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