In A Nutshell
I don’t know how many more different ways one can write “Corey Heim wins again.”
Heim once again snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, holding off Ty Majeski’s dominant truck to take his seventh win of 2025 and second straight after winning Watkins Glen International last week.
While Heim continued to pad his stats at Richmond Raceway in preparation for a deep playoff run, three ThorSport Racing teammates ended up crashing, while the other two played cat and mouse with each other for the final playoff spot in the Commonwealth.
The Top Truckers at Richmond Raceway
Winner, Polesitter: Corey Heim
Stage 1 and 2 Winner, Most Laps Led (143 of 250 laps): Ty Majeski
Fastest Lap: Daniel Hemric (23.465 seconds, 110.362 mph)
Biggest Mover: Gio Ruggiero (started 35th, finished sixth)
Top Storylines of the Race
- A lot of things have shifted over the last few weeks in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Niece Motorsports, Halmar Friesen Racing and Spire Motorsports all made changes to their driver lineups for the remainder of the season, which you can read about here.
- The entry list originally featured 37 trucks, but two of them were withdrawn. Norm Benning took his self-owned No. 6 out of the running early in the week, while Jack Wood and his No. 91 were withdrawn on Thursday (Aug. 14). Two withdrawals from the same race is very rare in any of NASCAR’s premier series, and calls into question the last time this has occurred. Nevertheless, the entry list shrank enough so everyone entered could make the show.
- Hours before the race, Niece announced that two of its sponsors, JF Electric and DQS Precision and Logistics would taking controlling ownership of the team. The team will remain named Niece Motorsports.
The Winning Move
This race was Majeski’s to lose.
While Heim qualified on pole and had great short run speed, it only took Majeski about 10 laps after a restart to get to the lead.
As defending champion, Majeski has no wins this season, but Richmond looked to be the night. He led 143 of 250 laps. He swept both stages. It looked like he’d go back-to-back at Richmond and kickstart his championship defense in the same way he kickstarted his title run last season.
Then his teammate wrecked him.
In Matt Crafton’s defense, it’s not his fault — Frankie Muniz dropped fluid on the racetrack, causing Crafton and several others to slip in turn 3. Unfortunately for Crafton, his teammate was right there.
Majeski only lost one spot, but on the restart, while trying to take the lead back from Sammy Smith, the two made contact. Then several others trucks ran into Majeski trying to get around him. That hurt Majeski’s truck enough to where he couldn’t challenge for the win and had to settle for second.
Meanwhile, Smith took off with the lead, and held it for a sizable amount of time, but ultimately could not escape the clutches of Heim Time, who made a late pass and hung on.
Playoff Rundown
The playoffs are set. We have our 10 drivers battling for the championship.
Heim clinched the regular season championship way back at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The No. 11 begins the playoffs with 65 playoff points — over a full race’s worth.
In other news, Stewart Friesen and HFR announced on Thursday (Aug. 14) that they would not be seeking a playoff waiver. That left one final spot up for grabs via points. Meanwhile, HFR’s new driver Kaden Honeycutt joined Grant Enfinger and Majeski as drivers locked in on points, clinching his spot after stage one.
In the end, it was Jake Garcia who grabbed the final playoff spot by 20 points over teammate Ben Rhodes.
Here are your 10 championship contenders with the points reset.
- Corey Heim — 2065
- Layne Riggs — 2026
- Chandler Smith — 2019
- Daniel Hemric — 2011
- Tyler Ankrum — 2010
- Ty Majeski — 2008
- Grant Enfinger — 2007
- Rajah Caruth — 2005
- Kaden Honeycutt — 2003
- Jake Garcia — 2002
Rookie Report
Rookie of the Race: Sammy Smith gave it his all but came up just short of notching his first career win in the Truck Series. However, a fifth-place qualifying effort, 33 laps led, and a fourth-place finish is enough to earn Smith, an Xfinity Series regular, this week’s Rookie of the Race.
No. 1 — Brent Crews (16th)
No. 02 — Nick Leitz (27th)
No. 2 — Clayton Green (35th)
No. 5 — Toni Breidinger* (24th)
No. 7 — Sammy Smith (fourth)
No. 17 — Gio Ruggiero* (sixth)
No. 26 — Dawson Sutton* (31st)
No. 33 — Frankie Muniz* (32nd)
No. 41 — Matt Gould (25th)
No. 44 — Andres Perez* (21st)
No. 67 — Ryan Roulette (29th)
No. 74 — Caleb Costner (30th)
No. 77 — Corey LaJoie (fifth)
No. 81 — Connor Mosack* (18th)
No. 84 — Patrick Staropoli (23rd)
No. 97 — Carson Kvapil (15th)
*Denotes 2025 Rookie of the Year contender
One Big Takeaway From This Race
McAnally-Hilgemann Racing withdrew Wood and the No. 91 this weekend after Wood suffered an undisclosed injury in a hard crash last weekend at Watkins Glen.
Ultimately, it’s not surprising, as Wood spent a while in the infield care center before being whisked away after exiting.
Wishing Wood a speedy recovery and return to the track.
The withdrawal, however, is surprising. By sitting out Richmond, Wood was denied one final opportunity to score an upset win and lock himself into the playoffs. But it also ended the No. 91 team’s chances of locking in as well.
What makes the whole thing really surprising, is that MHR had a driver who could have replaced Wood.
The team is entering what would have been a fifth truck, the No. 16 for Christian Eckes, who ran full-time for the team the last two seasons. It’s only scheduled to appear in two races this year, with one being Richmond.
Why didn’t MHR put Eckes in the No. 91 and withdraw the No. 16? We know Eckes can win — he might’ve been able to put the truck in the owners’ playoffs by winning the race.
Instead, MHR opted to keep Eckes in a truck that will only see the track once more and end any chance the No. 91 had at earning an owners’ playoff berth. That team could have used not only a morale boost, but the boost in prize money that comes with making the playoffs.
And if I’m Daniel Hemric, I’m not too happy either. Hemric’s No. 19 swapped crews, including crew chiefs, with Wood’s No. 91 team, to try to make a late playoff push for the No. 91. While Wood’s injury is out of anybody’s control, leaving the truck in the race and putting a proven winner like Eckes in is. The swap was all for nothing.
There’s surely a reason for the decision-making, but it doesn’t make it any less baffling.
Talkin’ Truckers
Heim on the win:
Majeski (second) breaks down where things went wrong in dominant night:
Layne Riggs (third) and Honeycutt (10th) recap their nights, including the caution for oil:
Corey LaJoie and Gio Ruggiero (fifth and sixth, respectively) break down the final restart and how pleased they were with their nights:
Garcia (seventh) will make his debut in the playoffs, discusses relief of nabbing final playoff spot:
Rhodes (eighth) discusses what more he needed to best teammate Garcia for the final playoff spot:
Carson Kvapil (15th) wants Xfinity cars back at Richmond and more races with CR7 Motorsports:
Niece confirms to Ross Chastain he will still have a job with the team, even with the new ownership group:
Paint Scheme of the Race
Enfinger and CR7 Motorsports brought a special paint scheme to Richmond, courtesy of their sponsor Grant County Mulch.
GCM was recently announced as the ‘Official Mulch Supplier’ of West Virginia University Athletics. To celebrate the partnership, GCM and CR7 ran a coal-black paint scheme plastered with WVU logos — complete with a WVU football player on the hood.
The paint scheme is special for many reasons — for GCM, headquartered in Petersburg, W.Va., it’s an exciting chance to partner with the top school in the state it’s located in. For CR7, and specifically team owner Codie Rohrbaugh, it’s a nice nod to back home — Rohrbaugh was also born in Petersburg (as is the team’s ARCA driver Jason Kitzmiller, for that matter).
Lastly, for yours truly. I’ve spent a lot of my life in West Virginia. I’m a proud alum of West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, about 75 minutes away from WVU. Recently, I moved back to West Virginia to begin a new job in the capital city of Charleston.
Being from Akron, Ohio, there hasn’t been much connection to auto racing in that area of the state since the NTT IndyCar Series stopped going to Cleveland. So to see a paint scheme representing my second home — it makes me smile.
Even without my West Virginia connection, it’s still a sweet scheme. The jet black is a nice change-up from what the team normally runs, and the nods to WVU football, from the hood to Enfinger’s firesuit and helmet, make it a damn good-looking truck.
For Enfinger, Country Roads took him home to a 13th-place finish.
Next Stop
The playoffs open at The Lady in Black.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to Darlington Raceway for a fall date after spending the last few years in the spring weekend lineup. While it’s technically not throwback weekend, some trucks will run throwbacks, such as MHR.
Chastain won last year’s race, but Cup Series drivers cannot compete in lower series playoffs, so he cannot defend his race win.
Coverage for the Sober or Slammer 200 begins at approximately noon ET on Saturday, Aug. 30. Television coverage remains on FOX Sports 1, while the all-new NASCAR Racing Network continues its exclusive season-long broadcast of the Truck Series.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
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. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.