Year after year, we as media members like to talk about whether or not “X” year is the year Corey Heim will go NASCAR Cup Series racing, and/or who he will go racing with.
The “where” seems to be figured out, as he signed with 23XI Racing as its first-ever development driver.
Though the “when” is still to be determined.
Quite frankly, Heim has overstayed his welcome in the Craftsman Truck Series, but it’s not his fault — a full-time ride in the Cup or Xfinity Series just hasn’t opened up for him.
On the opposite end, we media folk seldom discuss the next steps for Heim’s current Truck Series team, TRICON Garage, once the 23-year-old inevitably moves up the NASCAR development ladder.
It’s not the first time TRICON has had to prepare to replace one if its top prospects.
When Taylor Gray moved up to the Xfinity Series with Joe Gibbs Racing for 2025, TRICON picked one hell of a replacement in rookie Gio Ruggiero, who has done everything short of win this season and is on the fast track to winning 2025 Rookie of the Year.
Everyone knows that Heim will not spend his entire career in the Truck Series — and TRICON ought to recognize that, too. At any moment, its star driver could leave for bigger hopes and dreams and the team ought to get ahead of the curve for that inevitable time where truck No. 11 is without a driver.
So who could possibly hold the reins of such a fast, dominant truck?
There are a couple candidates in TRICON’s fifth truck, the No. 1, which is serving as the team’s all-star truck for the third year in a row. This year, instead of signing and announcing drivers as the season progresses, TRICON signed four drivers to drive the truck throughout the entire 25-race schedule.
Two of those drivers, William Sawalich and Brandon Jones, are full-time drivers for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Xfinity program. The other two, Brent Crews and Lawless Alan, are ARCA Menards Series drivers, with the latter full-time for Venturini Motorsports.
Alan and Crews are probably the best two candidates for the seat. Alan brings sponsorship in AutoParkIt and has found confidence in driving for Venturini, arguably the best ride he’s ever had in his career. To date, his career-defining moment was his first career ARCA victory at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this season.
Alan is scheduled to make four starts this season in the No. 1 and he’s already made two of those at Martinsville Speedway and Michigan International Speedway.
In those races, Alan scored finishes of 10th and 28th, respectively — the 28th at Michigan came after getting caught in a crash late in the race. If not for that, Alan could’ve had a much better finish.
If TRICON is looking for someone it could potentially have in the mid-to-long-term like it has with Heim, Alan could be a good choice as someone who just needs a chance to prove himself in top equipment. His sponsorship will help fund the truck and at the very least, he can bring the truck home in one piece.
But if TRICON’s looking for its next big prospect, then all eyes have to turn to the 17-year-old Crews.
Having already won an ARCA race this season like Alan, Crews is also an ARCA East winner, emerging victorious at Rockingham Speedway in April. Crews currently competes full-time in the zMAX CARS Tour, which helps him on the short tracks, and also has experience as a Trans-Am TA2 driver, which is where his road course prowess comes from.
While Crews hasn’t gotten the media attention as a prospect (at least compared to those like Heim, Jesse Love or Connor Zilisch when they were working their way up to NASCAR), he is silently building a name for himself, highlighted by his two aforementioned ARCA/ARCA East wins this season.
Much like replacing Gray with Ruggiero, moving from Heim to Crews could be a home run for TRICON, especially with Crews piloting its flagship No. 11.
The lone issue for Crews is that he doesn’t turn 18 until March 30 of next season. If TRICON needs a replacement for Heim for next season, Crews would miss the first few races due to his age. It’s nothing TRICON hasn’t dealt with before — Gray missed the first three races of his rookie season in 2023 due to young age. But the question is whether or not the team wants to deal with that again, especially with the new, stricter waiver requirements.
Speaking of Ruggiero, the rookie has been turning heads this season in his No. 17 and could realistically be the leader of the team once Heim departs.
What are the chances TRICON moves Ruggiero to its flagship No. 11 and then finds someone like Crews or Alan to take the No. 17? This season, Front Row Motorsports moved Todd Gilliland from the No. 38 to its flagship No. 34 after Michael McDowell departed. Gilliland became the leader of the team, therefore FRM decided to give him its flagship number. What’s to say TRICON doesn’t do the same for Ruggiero?
There are some other drivers in the Toyota pipeline that TRICON could potentially choose from as well, namely Isabella Robusto or even someone like Treyten Lapcevich, but Alan and Crews might be the front runners for the ride.
Don’t rule out Sawalich either, though. Sawalich is having an Xfinity season from hell, and isn’t adapting to the cars as much as most thought he would. If he continues to struggle, be it for the rest of this season or 2026 as well, a demotion back to the Truck Series could be just what he needs to gain his confidence back.
Hopefully TRICON already has a plan in place before Heim’s inevitable departure. If not, there’s no better time to start than now.
Otherwise it’ll be left scrambling for a driver for its flagship seat.
As Chandler Smith showed, talent is not the key criteria to get a ride in Xfinity. Ty Gibbs and Heim are far,far away from being ‘best buddies.’ With Herbst being picked over Heim in 2025, any 23XI option (assuming they even exist in 2026) would require Bubba or Reddick to move. I don’t see Jordan firing Bubba, and Reddick is doing better than Bubba and brings in sponsor $$$. Depending on how contracts are written, someone could bolt to Legacy or JGR (if Legacy wins its court case). Between 2 and 8 charters are for sale, it appears.
At JGR, Gibbs, Bell and Briscoe are unlikely to go. And if all the dominos depend on Hamlin winning a title before he retires…….I see a bowtie or a blue oval in Heim’s future before I see a Toyota ride opening up.
Agree with your assessment, unless 23XI manages to retain their charters, and adds another for Heim. Wallace and Reddick both bring in too many sponsor dollars to consider replacing them, and at the end of the day, it is a business.
As for JGR, also agree that would be a long shot. Ty Gibbs strikes me as someone with thin skin, and the thought of Heim coming in and making him look bad will likely keep Heim out of a JGR Cup car.
In Cup, I’d think the most likely outcome is Penske, with Cindric exiting stage left. He no longer has his father in management, and his performance has never been as good as Blaney’s or Logano’s. If he’s under contract beyond this year, Penske could always put him in one of his sports car efforts, and decide later whether he’s worth maintaining on that front.
On the Chevy side, possible Hendrick would remove Bowman. The latter would be a shame. Bowman just seems to have amazingly bad luck, and is competitive with his teammates most weeks.
After Legge and Bilicki (in their low budget rides) out qualified him at Chicago, maybe Heim Time isn’t ready for Prime Time!