Corey Heim is probably the top Toyota prospect right now, and Joe Gibbs Racing is of course the top Toyota team.
Makes sense for them to get together, right?
But they haven’t, and it appears they won’t any time soon, all over a feud that happened in the ARCA Menards Series.
It’s no secret that there was no love lost between Heim and Ty Gibbs, grandson of owner Joe Gibbs, when they competed for the ARCA championship in 2021. Both prodigies put up legendary numbers in a clash-of-titans title fight. But along the way, they did everything in the book to piss each other off.
In the 20-race ARCA season, there were at least three races with incidents between the duo — all kinds of beating and banging that came to a head when Gibbs dumped Heim for the win at Winchester Speedway.
Added to it were the post-race interviews. Early in the season, Gibbs called out Heim more than once. At some point it switched over to Heim calling out Gibbs while the latter deflected all questions about the feud with Jesus-related answers.
I don’t think you can say one driver was in the right and the other was in the wrong. It was just great, entertaining racing between two talented young guns. And both were 18 years old, so they were young, dumb and full of … potential. They were each other’s main competition for an entire season, so of course things got heated.
But the common belief around the garage is that the reason Heim has never driven and will never drive a JGR car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is because of that feud with Gibbs. I’m not sure if that’s Heim not wanting to do so or if that’s JGR not offering him a seat, but I have my assumptions.
Twelve different drivers have piloted a JGR car in at least one Xfinity race this year. You’d think Heim would at least get one race in there. The counter to that is Heim doesn’t bring funding. But that argument doesn’t hold up because he didn’t even get to fill in when the team suspended Aric Almirola.
My question is simple: Why is Toyota not stepping in? With 10 career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins and a great shot at the championship this year, Heim has proven he is ready to move up. Heck, in just a partial schedule, he nearly won Sam Hunt Racing its first Xfinity race last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Maybe Heim could go full time with Hunt next year, but while that team does a great job as a single-car unit, it’s not as good as JGR.
There are two other Toyota teams in the NASCAR Cup Series in 23XI Racing and Legacy Motor Club that Heim has already made starts for and with which he could move up. But with the charter dispute, we don’t even know if 23XI will be around next year, let alone expand. And it would be career suicide for Heim to get in a Legacy car with that team’s current lack of speed.
So really, if Toyota wants to keep Heim and not lose him like it’s lost so many top prospects, the only way forward right now is with JGR. Erik Jones and Christopher Bell didn’t bring money. Toyota footed the bill and made it happen to get them into JGR Xfinity or Cup cars.
Toyota needs to have a milk-and-cookies meeting between Heim and Joe and Ty Gibbs. Both drivers have matured a ton since their ARCA days. They should be able to put an old feud in the past.
It’s unknown if more happened between the two behind the scenes, but I bet neither put the other in a headlock and punched away like Richard Childress once did to Kyle Busch. Those two now work together. Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace once had an altercation, and Wallace now drives for Hamlin’s team 23XI. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had feuds with Busch and Kevin Harvick, and he had them both on his podcast, The Dale Jr. Download, to clear the air.
Nothing has happened between Heim and Gibbs that hasn’t happened between drivers in the past who eventually came around to get along with each other. They don’t even have to be friends. Racing is a business, and it makes the most business sense for them to be teammates. They can both just show up, do their jobs and then go hang out with their actual friends.
Otherwise, it sets a bad precedent for JGR going forward and may make drivers weary to go there. If Chase Briscoe knocks Gibbs out of the way to advance into the Round of 12, will his contract to drive the No. 19 be null and void? If Gibbs has bad customer service at a Bass Pro Shops or FedEx, or if a can of Monster Energy explodes all over him, will the team no longer want them as sponsors?
Gibbs and Heim, just kiss and make up already. And then as teammates, race each other as hard as you did during the 2021 ARCA season. The NASCAR fanbase could use some more of that.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.