It’s no secret that the talk of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series garage is Corey Heim.
Not just because of the fact that he is on pace to match – or at least come close to – Greg Biffle‘s single-season win record of nine in 1999 this season, but also because he is the driver with the most skills necessary for potential promotion in 2025.
In fact, Heim has made two Cup Series starts already this season in relief of an injured Erik Jones, with a third on the way in a third 23XI Racing car at Nashville Superspeedway. His name has been tossed around a lot in the rumor mill as a candidate to earn a Cup ride in 2025 by way of a third charter, whether it’s through Legacy Motor Club or 23XI Racing. This makes sense, as Heim serves as the reserve driver and sim driver for both teams.
However, with the 2024 Truck Series season primarily dominated by Heim Time, that’s left other drivers doing just as well as Heim out of the spotlight. Much like last season, when Zane Smith, Carson Hocevar and Hailie Deegan all were promoted out of Truck Series competition, there are several more drivers other than Heim who could end up racing on Saturdays or Sundays next season.
But who?
Christian Eckes
Of all the drivers in the Truck Series field, this one feels like the most obvious. Christian Eckes has caught fire since he joined forces with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing in 2023. He has gone on to capture six of his seven career wins with the team, including two this season. As it stands, he’s the only driver who can hold a candle to Heim’s performance this year.
If you had made this statement a few years back, people would have looked at you like you were crazy. At one point, one may have been able to pronounce Eckes’ career dead after his release from Kyle Busch Motorsports after a three-year tenure (one full-time) that resulted in zero wins in 35 starts.
He was then picked up by ThorSport Racing part-time for 2021, earning his first career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Then a winless 2022 resulted in Eckes jumping ship to MHR, who also was struggling in its Truck Series endeavors with Derek Kraus at the wheel.
Both parties have managed to make each other better, and it’s hard to ever count Eckes and MHR’s flagship No. 19 out of contention for a race win. Eckes had an unreal run in late 2023 that left him just short of a championship when a win at Bristol Motor Speedway slipped through his fingers. That momentum has carried into 2024 and could be an under-the-radar signing for an Xfinity Series team.
Possible landing spots for Eckes don’t involve any series higher than the Xfinity Series in all honesty. He has talent, but Chevrolet ought to take some time on the 23-year-old Eckes. After all, he was, by all intents and purposes, a late bloomer in Truck Series success. It’s unreasonable to expect any team or manufacturer to be Cup-ready after one season in any particular series.
One would imagine he has several options available to him within the Chevrolet pipeline. Kaulig Racing is one should Shane van Gisbergen get a full-time Cup opportunity, same with Richard Childress Racing if Austin Hill gets the call to race on Sundays.
I’d even throw in Jordan Anderson Racing should Parker Retzlaff‘s services be requested by a Cup team or higher-level Xfinity team. Or perhaps JR Motorsports will make room for him, even on a part-time basis.
But if there’s a Chevrolet ride available in Xfinity for 2025, then Eckes might be the top contender for that ride.
Taylor Gray
It took Taylor Gray less time to get acclimated to an Xfinity car than it did a truck.
Gray’s Truck Series career got off to a slow start as well. In two part-time seasons in 2021 and 2022 with DGR-Crosley (now TRICON Garage), he had just one top 10. He arguably should have had another at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2022 before being spun from the lead by John Hunter Nemechek on a green-white-checkered restart.
Gray’s official rookie season wasn’t anything to brag about either. He missed the first three races of the year due to his age, and was only able to grab six top 10s and three top fives. He finished a distant third in the Rookie of the Year standings, in a season with six full-time rookies.
However, in 2024, Gray has not fallen victim to any kind of sophomore slump. In fact, one could call it a sophomore surge. Despite not reaching victory lane (yet), Gray has already matched his top-five total from 2023 and surpassed his top-10 total, just 12 races in. He only has three finishes outside the top 15 and is second in points of the drivers who don’t have a win yet in 2024.
Along with this, Gray got an opportunity to make a handful of Xfinity starts with Joe Gibbs Racing. In his debut, he came out swinging, finishing an impressive third at Richmond Raceway. He hasn’t had a top-10 in his six starts since, but the stat sheet doesn’t really show the full picture of how Gray has run in his part-time schedule. Not to mention, he only has one DNF, which came at Dover Motor Speedway.
JGR has a plethora of drivers running its all-star Nos. 19 and 20 in the Xfinity Series, but Gray will more than likely receive more starts than anyone in the No. 19; plus, he will likely only trail Aric Almirola and maybe Nemechek for most starts among part-timers at JGR this season.
While Toyota’s pipeline is clogged with talent (then again, when has it not had that issue), the younger Gray has established himself as a driver who could flourish in a full-time Xfinity ride. With Chandler Smith‘s name being tossed around as a future Cup driver, there could be an open seat come next season. It also might be worth JGR reducing to one all-star car and giving the other to Gray on a full-time basis.
We can’t rule out Sam Hunt Racing as a legitimate Toyota team to help develop drivers. Heim runs a part-time Xfinity schedule for the team, and drivers like Nemechek, Tyler Reddick, and Gray’s other teammate Dean Thompson have made or will be making starts for the team.
It especially doesn’t help Gray that he’s a teammate of Heim, the hottest driver on the market for 2025. If Heim had chosen to move up to Xfinity last season, it would be Gray taking the reins as the team’s star driver. But he’s still making the most of playing second-fiddle, and it could land him a ride in the Xfinity Series next year.
Ty Majeski
Okay, admittedly, this is a wild-card pick. Ty Majeski seems very happy with where he’s at with ThorSport Racing. He is a routine contender for wins and championships, and has had the best NASCAR seasons of his career since joining the team full time in 2022.
However, take a look at Ford’s pipeline for 2025. It has Deegan, who has had a rookie season from hell in the Xfinity Series this year. Then there’s Frankie Muniz, who is struggling to land any sort of ride, let alone a full-time one. Then there’s Christian Rose, AM Racing’s ARCA Menards Series driver who has had solid runs but still can’t seem to find victory lane.
After that? Well … there is nobody else. Ford has such a small pipeline as is, and Stewart-Haas Racing’s closing at season’s end only thins it more. At this point, it’s hard to even say that Ford has a developmental pipeline.
The only other Truck Series driver that Ford has that could legitimately work his way up the ladder is Jake Garcia, who, unlike Gray, has been seemingly caught in a sophomore slump since jumping ship from MHR to ThorSport this season. At this moment, it’d be hard to consider him for promotion before 2026.
However, teammate Majeski has consistently been one of, if not the best ThorSport trucks the past few years.
Majeski used to be a full-on Ford development driver, making a few Xfinity starts with Roush Fenway Racing (now RFK Racing) in 2017 and 2018. He then ran part-time for Niece Motorsports in 2019 and 2020 – the latter of which was supposed to be full-time before being dropped in the latter third of the season. He joined ThorSport on a part-time basis for 2021, much like Eckes, then went full-time in 2022.
Majeski is a three-time truck winner, but a routine frontrunner; more often than not, an issue or bad break takes Majeski out of contention for the win.
Again, it’s a long shot to say that Majeski would even want to be promoted – he could follow the route of teammates Ben Rhodes and Matt Crafton and find satisfaction in being a Trucker for life. But when you look at Ford’s pipeline, there’s nobody really left to develop. If Ford wants someone within its own system to develop, Majeski is likely the most ready driver of anybody.
This issue is further compounded by the fact that the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 will likely need a new driver for 2024. But with no Cup-ready Ford drivers in the pipeline, Ford will likely have to poach a driver from another manufacturer in order to fill that seat (if it chooses to release Harrison Burton). The only conceivable Ford driver who has the best shot at taking that ride is Majeski, and it’s a long one at that.
Even still, Majeski’s career takeoff was a slow burn much like Eckes. Now that we know he’s capable of running up front and winning, why not give him another shot in a higher level of competition? He could have a Ross Chastain type of career surge that could land him in a Cup ride sooner rather than later. Even if he were to change manufacturers, that could boost his chances dramatically.
But you never really know until you try. Any Xfinity team looking for a driver next season, perhaps give the Seymour, Wisc. native a call.
—-
All eyes are obviously on Heim and the TRICON No. 11 this season. But once news is inevitably released about any kind of 2025 plans for him, attention will shift in the Truck Series garage to who could potentially join him.
And Eckes, Gray and Majeski all make great cases.
Truckin’ Tidbits
Since the Truck Series’ last race at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 1 …
- On May 29, Clint Bowyer was announced as the driver of Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 at Nashville on June 28. It will be Bowyer’s first national series start since 2020 and first Truck Series start since 2016.
- Brenden Queen, affectionately known by his nickname “Butterbean” by his fans, will make two more starts in TRICON’s rotational No. 1 truck at Nashville and Kansas Speedway. Queen drove the No. 1 to an impressive fourth-place finish in his debut at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 18-19.
- Muniz will make three Truck Series starts (along with an ARCA start) with Reaume Brothers Racing. His three truck starts include Nashville, Bristol and Kansas. His lone ARCA start will come at Michigan International Speedway.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.