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Corey Heim Wins Daytona Truck Race After Parker Kligerman DQ

On a night when NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams and manufacturers tried to flex their strength in numbers, the semi-retired Parker Kligerman and part-time Henderson Motorsports found themselves in the right place at the right time on the racetrack.

That was, until Kligerman’s winning truck failed post-race inspection for a rear height violation.

UPDATE: Henderson Motorsports has since announced that they will appeal the DQ.

With Kligerman’s disqualification, initial runner-up Corey Heim was declared the winner. The win was Heim’s first at Daytona and the 12th of his Truck career, and his triumph in Friday night’s (Feb. 14) Fresh From Florida 250 locks him into the playoffs for the third straight year.

Eighteen-year-old rookie Gio Ruggiero finished second for a TRICON Garage 1-2 finish. Reigning champion Ty Majeski finished third followed by Grant Enfinger, who overcame a speeding penalty to finish fourth. NASCAR Cup Series regular Justin Haley completed the top five, while Chandler Smith finished sixth after leading the most laps (34).

Daniel Hemric, Jason White, William Sawalich and Frankie Muniz rounded out the top 10 in seventh through 10th, respectively.

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It took just four laps for the first caution of the night to come out for Kaden Honeycutt, who spun off turn 4 while battling for the lead and slammed hard into the inside wall. Toni Breidinger would bring out another caution on lap 15 in a similar fashion, though she would escape with minor damage.

A one-lap shootout to end stage one saw polesitter Ben Rhodes take the green-and-white checkered flag. Johnny Sauter, Enfinger, Smith and Heim rounded out the top five for stage one.

Rhodes restarted in the back of the pack after an extended pit stop for adjustments. He and ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton worked their way to the front quickly in stage two, with Crafton being pushed to the stage win by Rhodes. Another ThorSport driver, Majeski, finished third in the stage while Smith finished fourth and Jack Wood took fifth.

Ford took a strategic risk during the final stage break, pitting after the rest of the field in hopes of staying out longer for a round of green flag pit stops. Most of the field had made green flag pit stops before lap 69 when Clay Greenfield crashed off turn 4 to bring out a caution.

The biggest wreck of the evening came with 18 laps to go. Wood spun on the backstretch and collected Crafton, Breidinger, Michael McDowell, Rajah Caruth and Nathan Byrd. Caruth and Byrd got the worst of it and went to the garage for 31st- and 32nd-place finishes, respectively.

That caution set the stage for the final 12 laps, where Kligerman, Heim, Rhodes, Smith, Ruggiero and others battled for the win. On the final lap, ThorSport teammates Rhodes and Sauter spun on the backstretch off a bump from Majeski while FRM’s Layne Riggs got loose and collected a plethora of trucks in turns 3 and 4.

The caution lights illuminated as the lead trucks rounded turn 4, and Kligerman was out front to take the checkered flag. But Heim was awarded the win after tech inspection, and he kicks off 2025 as the early points leader.

Fresh From Florida 250 Results

The Truck Series will head to another drafting track for their next stop on the schedule. The Fr8 208 at Atlanta Motor Speedway is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 22, with TV coverage on Fox Sports 1. 

James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.


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Nascar Fan

Draft kings didn’t adjust scores for this smh