KANSAS CITY, Kan. — As has been the case all season, Corey Heim had a fast truck in Saturday night’s (May 10) Heart of Health Care 200 at Kansas Speedway.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points leader has racked up three wins and has led laps in all nine races this season, and with a second-place qualifying effort Saturday afternoon and three consecutive Kansas wins on the line, it was clear from the moment the green flag dropped that Heim would be a major player in the outcome.
“I obviously thought we had a chance to win from the very beginning,” Heim said. “This is the best we qualified here by like 11 spots, and then just kind of managed the first stage really well.”
Heim had a perfect stage one and paced the field for 51 of the first 52 laps. But it was a round of pit stops on lap 53 where Heim’s race started to go south, as a broken pit gun dropped him back to 16th.
“I had that pit gun break on us on pit road,” Heim explained. “No fault to the pit crew at all, and it kind of just derailed our day from there.”
But the day wasn’t over, as Heim climbed back to fourth in the final stage by the time the final round of green pit stops began on lap 92. The No. 11 team was one of the first to hit pit road, but an untimely spin from Frankie Muniz brought out the caution and trapped Heim a lap down. He took the wave around to get back on the lead lap, but the yellow dropped him back to, you guessed it, 16th.
The nail in the coffin came on lap 103, as Heim — along with TRICON garage teammate Toni Breidinger — were busted for changing lanes on a restart prior to the start/finish line. Breidinger moved to the outside to pass Kaden Honeycutt, and Heim followed her.
“I couldn’t tell if the whole line moved up and I needed to follow them, or [if] the No. 45 (Honeycutt) split the middle,” Heim explained. “Or [if] I needed to follow the No. 5 (Breidinger) or I needed to follow the No. 45.
“From my judgment, all I can see is two trucks. So when the whole line moves up, I don’t know, and I could have guessed wrong because they could’ve nabbed the No. 45 for being low or they could have nabbed me and the No. 5 for being high.
“And they had me and the No. 5 for being high. [I] just made the wrong call. I feel like it’s a little rough of a judgment call on their part, but I can see how it looks bad on TV. But like from where I’m sitting, I can only see two trucks.”
With a pass-through penalty under green, Heim’s race was effectively over until a timely caution kept him from going a lap down.
“I knew once the (final) yellow came out, we had a shot at it.”
Restarting 21st, Heim made an impressive climb in the final 20 laps to cross the line in fourth (and was credited with finishing third after Layne Riggs’ disqualification). But with no other cautions, Heim ran out of time to complete the comeback for three straight victories at Kansas.
“The No. 7 (Carson Hocevar) was strong enough early that I knew he was going to be tough to get to, but I kind of figured we’d be able to get back to borderline top five,” Heim said. “I was pretty impressed we were able to get back to fourth within those 20 or so laps there.”
“… If we got another caution, I would’ve liked to race for it, but it didn’t fall our way.”
Overall, the race left Heim with “mixed emotions.” But his weekend isn’t over yet, as he will make his first NASCAR Cup Series start of the 2025 season on Sunday (May 11). He’ll start 28th in the AdventHealth 400 for his first of three (currently scheduled) starts with 23XI Racing this season.
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