FORT WORTH, Texas — With a dominant long-run truck that went cold on a barrage of late-race restarts, Corey Heim held on to win Friday’s (May 2) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway by the skin of his teeth — but not without ruffling some feathers along the way.
The No. 11 truck struggled to launch at the end of the race, and that allowed Ben Rhodes to pull alongside Heim on the penultimate and final restarts of overtime. Heim barely held on to the lead each time, in part by slightly moving up the track and to the edge of the groove while running underneath Rhodes.
“Corey had been actively running us up the track,” Rhodes explained. “So the second-to-last restart, you saw the No. 71 (Rajah Caruth) get inside of us three-wide down the backstretch because [Corey] had been running us out of the groove; I had to come all the way out of the gas there. … and then in [turns] 3 and 4 coming to the white that last restart, he took us a lane and a half up.”
What a finish in #NASCAROvertime! pic.twitter.com/tqJ1BLyGye
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) May 3, 2025
Heim and Rhodes lifting out the throttle nearly opened the door for Daniel Hemric to take them three-wide and ride off into the sunset on the final lap.
“I knew when they got side-by-side I’d have a big run,” Hemric said. “I didn’t know if I had enough pure tire capability left to make the move and kind of created just enough to get left of the No. 11 to get three-wide on the bottom. I just didn’t have enough left to make it stick though [turns] 1 and 2.”
Heim had the advantage over Hemric heading into turn 1, and he cleared himself to the lead exiting turn 2 on the high line. Hemric held on to finish second, while Rhodes faded to sixth on the final lap, with his truck visibly smoking for the last 1.5 miles.
Rhodes obviously wasn’t pleased with Heim for running him up the track coming to the white flag.
“I thought it was a dirty move,” Rhodes continued. “Obviously, it worked out for [Corey]. But for us, it got us a sixth-place finish, so I’m not happy about that. I’ll let him know I wasn’t happy about it, but I’m not going to complain. We’re going to focus forward here. It’s Truck Series racing and it’s kind of what the Truck Series is known for I guess, right?”
When asked about Rhodes’ comments about the finish in his winner’s press conference, Heim believed that Rhodes — and anyone else in his shoes, for that matter — wouldn’t have acted any differently.
“Feel like he would have done the same thing, as would have anyone coming to the white flag,” Heim. “I think that’s a pretty crazy statement, probably just him in the heat of the moment, but I mean, come on dude. Like, we’re coming to the white flag of a race that everyone’s trying to win, and you don’t want me to push you into the groove — like, take a look in the mirror, you know what I mean?”
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf