In A Nutshell
Heim Time is inevitable.
Corey Heim picked up his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of the season in a chaotic race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night (May 2), holding off late charges from Ben Rhodes and Daniel Hemric in overtime to do so.
Wait, overtime? Yes, unfortunately the 21-race streak of Truck Series races without an overtime finish came to an end at Texas, in a race that turned into one of attrition with the way a lot of drivers crashed out early.
They say everything’s bigger in Texas, but it nearly felt like the Wild Wild West out there.
The Top Truckers at Kansas Speedway
Winner, Stage 2 Winner, Most Laps Led (96 of 174 laps): Corey Heim
Polesitter: Tyler Ankrum
Stage 1 Winner: Grant Enfinger
Fastest Lap: Carson Hocevar (29.742 seconds, 181.561 mph)
Biggest Mover: Ben Rhodes (started 28th, finished sixth)
The Winning Move
When the Truckers took the green to begin the first overtime, Heim found himself in deep trouble after he was split by Rhodes and Rajah Caruth for the lead down the backstretch. However, the caution came out for a crash in the back, which reverted the running order back to the last scoring loop. A review of that scoring loop gave Heim the lead back for the second overtime.
Rhodes again hung with Heim on the restart, keeping on the No. 11’s quarter panel and door for the entire penultimate lap. That opened the door for Hemric to slip to the inside and put the leaders three-wide for the race win.
Somehow, some way, Heim came out on top exiting turn 2, and held on through the final half-lap to take win No. 3 on the season — though he’s been on pace for so many more, so maybe the field is lucky the Texas was only his third.
Playoff Rundown
Nobody new locks themself into the playoffs, and as it stands there are just six spots remaining for drivers to win their way in. Heim opens up his lead on Chandler Smith, who was a crash victim late in the race, to 46 points for the regular-season championship. Meanwhile, Rhodes has an 11-point cushion on the cut line over Stewart Friesen.
Rookie Report
Rookie of the Race: All but two rookies crashed out of the event — that left Dawson Sutton with an easy path to lead them. His ninth-place finish earns him rookie of the race for the first time this season.
No. 2 — Cody Dennison (19th)
No. 5 — Toni Breidinger (26th)
No. 17 — Gio Ruggiero (31st)
No. 26 — Dawson Sutton (ninth)
No. 33 — Frankie Muniz (25th)
No. 66 — Luke Fenhaus (27th)
No. 77 — Andres Perez (29th)
No. 81 — Connor Mosack (22nd)
Talkin’ Truckers
Hemric (second), Caruth (third) and Rhodes (sixth) discuss their vantage points and opinions on the late-race restarts:
Sutton and Ty Majeski (ninth and 10th) break down their runs:
Stefan Parsons (12th) was penalized for a restart violation while running in the top five, and Parsons did not agree:
Hocevar (17th) suffered from a voltage issue late in the night that took him out of a potential top-three finish:
Enfinger and Friesen (23rd and 24th) break down what happened to bring out the penultimate caution of the night:
Frankie Muniz (25th) describes his frustrating season thus far:
Layne Riggs and Andres Perez (28th and 29th, respectively) describe what happened after each had separate incidents that ended their nights:
Brandon Jones, Ruggiero and Kaden Honeycutt (30th-32nd) give their vantage points of their vicious crash in stage one:
Paint Scheme of the Race
You’d think we were racing at Darlington Raceway with the looks that Niece Motorsports’ entire three-truck fleet showed up with.
All three Niece trucks descended upon Texas (the home state of team owner Al Niece) with three throwbacks to commemorate the team’s 10-year anniversary of existence.
Matt Mills’ No. 42 served as a throwback to Ross Chastain’s “redemption win” at World Wide Technology Raceway in 2019. Why was it a redemption win? The race prior at Iowa Speedway, Chastain won the race but made history as the first driver to be disqualified for failing post-race inspection. That paint scheme was represented as well on Bayley Currey’s No. 44.
For Honeycutt’s No. 45, the team went all the way back to its first-ever start in late 2015 at Texas Motor Speedway. Casey Smith was the driver, sporting a very similar paint scheme that Honeycutt replicated on Friday night.
It may not be Darlington, but Niece showed out with some nice-looking throwback schemes at its home track for its 10th anniversary. Mills finished 20th, while Currey finished eighth. Honeycutt, unfortunately, was part of the hard multi-truck crash just before the end of stage one and suffered a last-place finish.
Next Stop
The Heartland is ready to break some hearts.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has officially begun its stretch of six straight weeks of racing, and its second stop in that stretch will be at Kansas Speedway on May 10. Corey Heim is the defending winner of both the spring and fall races.
Coverage for the Heart of Healthcare 200 at Kansas Speedway begins at approximately 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Television coverage can be found on FOX Sports 1, while the all-new NASCAR Racing Network continues its exclusive season-long coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
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, among many other duties he takes on for the site. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight-choreographer-in-training in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.