Lime Rock Park has straightaways named after Sam Posey and Paul Newman. Maybe soon the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be named after Corey Heim.
Heim led 99 of 100 laps at Lime Rock Park in the LiUNA! 150 on June 28, collecting his fifth win of the season and 16th of his career.
The polesitter Heim swept both stages and only allowed Layne Riggs — who finished 13th — to lead one lap on a late restart. Heim has won the last three Truck Series road courses.
“Nothing short of incredible man,” Heim told FOX Sports 1 postrace. “These road courses are something I really look forward to. Prepare pretty hard and work hard for them. To see them all pay off is super special.”
Defending series champion Ty Majeski finished second after a chaotic late restart. He now holds a 37-point advantage at the cutline over ThorSport Racing teammate Jake Garcia with three races remaining in the regular season.
Gio Ruggiero finished third in his best finish since the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Ben Rhodes in fourth and Cam Waters in fifth gave ThorSport Racing three top-five finishers.
Chandler Smith, Josh Bilicki, Brent Crews, Daniel Hemric and Tyler Ankrum made up the rest of the top 10.
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Heim dominated a caution-free first stage, building up a seven-second lead over Riggs to secure the stage win. Jordan Taylor, Crews and Connor Mosack rounded out the top five for the stage.
Stage two was more of the same as Heim collected his 14th stage win of the year, growing his single-season stage win record he broke in stage one. Riggs, Taylor, Mosack and Chandler Smith made up the top five.
The start of the final stage was delayed with a red flag for fluids on the Sam Posey Straight. When racing resumed with 25 laps to go, the action behind Heim picked up with the likes of Matt Crafton and Matt Mills going off course.
Heim once again built up a sizable lead over Riggs until Mills went off the track in turn 1 and stalled in the grass with 12 laps remaining, bringing out the race’s first caution for cause.
After the debuting Wesley Slimp was pushed to the pits with a loss of power, several cars barreled through turn 1 and off the track on the restart with five laps to go. Riggs was side-by-side with Heim for the lead, but locked up the brakes and gave up several positions.
Drivers like Mosack, Taylor, Thomas Annunziata and Rajah Caruth who spent most of the afternoon in the top 10 fell far back in the field. Annunziata finished 15th, Mosack took 16th, Taylor settled for 20th and Caruth fell to 21st.
All the while, Heim escaped unharmed to beat Majeski to the checkered flag by 1.381 seconds.
Truck Results for Lime Rock Park
The Truck Series is off until July 25 when the series visits Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for the TSport 200. Coverage on FOX Sports 1 is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET.
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.