In A Nutshell
It is officially a historic season for Corey Heim.
Heim rebounded from a lap 1 crash to win his 10th race of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, moving into sole possession of the winningest season in Truck Series history. The win locks him into the Championship 4, where he has a third shot at bringing home a title.
While Heim celebrated with a battered truck in victory lane, his teammate Brent Crews, the dominant truck of the day, was left to wonder what could have been after a dominating day came up just short.
Gio Ruggiero finished third, capping off a 1-2-3 finish for TRICON Garage.
The Top Truckers at Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL
Winner, Polesitter: Corey Heim
Stage 1 and 2 Winner: Kaden Honeycutt
Most Laps Led (55 of 70 laps), Fastest Lap (86.666 seconds, 94.708 mph), Rookie of the Race: Brent Crews
The Winning Move
After Heim crashed with other playoff drivers Grant Enfinger and Layne Riggs in the first turn of the first lap, the race was turned over to Crews for most of the afternoon. Crews laid down the fastest lap while leading the most laps in the race by a wide margin.
It seemed to be Crews’ race to lose, which made the caution that came out even harder for the No. 1 team to swallow. What’s worse, is the driver who brought out the caution was Toni Breidinger, a teammate to Crews and Heim.
In Breidinger’s defense, it wasn’t her fault — she ran out of fuel and stalled on track. But it didn’t change the fact that Crews now had to fight Heim for the win, not aided by the No. 1 making a pit stop while the No. 11 stayed out.
Crews restarted seventh, while Heim assumed the lead. As everyone crashed behind Heim, Crews squeezed through to second, but couldn’t run Heim back down, allowing the No. 11 to run off with No. 10.
Playoff Rundown
It was … not a good day for playoff drivers, Heim included.
Sure, Heim won, and most of them rebounded for great finishes, but it was anything but a smooth day for any of them.
As such, the cut line is quite jumbled heading into the next race, another chaotic crapshoot in Talladega Superspeedway.
Unlike the Round of 10, the end of the Round of 8 will see four drivers eliminated instead of two. Right now, all seven playoff drivers that aren’t locked into the Championship 4 are separated by just five points. Yes, you read that right — just five points separate seven drivers.
No one — and boy, do I mean, no one — is sitting pretty heading to Talladega.
Well, no one except that No. 11 truck, who has nothing to worry about for the next two races. Heim can now focus toward Phoenix Raceway and capping off a dominant season with the title.
As a fun aside, if this was a full-season points format, Heim would have clinched the championship on Friday with a whopping 258-point lead over second. That’s how unreal of a season he’s had.
But in this format, he’ll have to wait until lap 200 at Phoenix to determine whether or not he’s the champion.
Rookie Report
Is it any question?
Crews led 55 of the race’s 70 laps, scored the fastest lap, and finished second in what probably should have been a winning truck. No question, he’s earned this week’s Rookie of the Race honors.
No. 1 — Brent Crews (second)
No. 02 — Ben Maier (25th)
No. 2 — Carter Fartuch (34th)
No. 5 — Toni Breidinger* (30th)
No. 7 — Connor Zilisch (fifth)
No. 17 — Gio Ruggiero* (third)
No. 20 — Will Rodgers (15th)
No. 26 — Dawson Sutton* (13th)
No. 33 — Frankie Muniz* (out with injury)
No. 44 — Andres Perez* (32nd)
No. 62 — Wesley Slimp (27th)
No. 69 — Tyler Tomassi (29th)
No. 81 — Connor Mosack* (10th)
*Denotes 2025 Rookie of the Year contender
Talkin’ Truckers
Heim on the win:
Crews (second) describes the heartbreak of missing out on his first career win:
Hear from Spire Motorsports teammates Connor Zilisch and Rajah Caruth as they finished fourth and fifth behind the TRICON trio:
Josh Bilicki (sixth) and Connor Mosack (10th) break down their days and what their looking at for 2026 plans:
Enfinger (seventh) details his day and takes responsibility for several incidents throughout the race:
Despite winning both stages, Kaden Honeycutt was not happy with Enfinger after his 14th-place finish:
Will Rodgers (15th) discusses what happened after he nearly had to step out of his truck and let Parker Kligerman take over driving duties:
Riggs (21st) recaps his crazy day after suffering unrepairable damage in the lap 1 crash:
Matt Crafton (24th) was livid with Bayley Currey after Currey spun the No. 88 out:
Ben Rhodes (36th) saw his day end in a crash after just three laps:
Paint Scheme of the Race
Oh, how good the color green is on a race vehicle.
Tanner Gray’s No. 15 is the most recent example of that.
With sponsorship from Factory Canopies, Gray showed up to NASCAR’s backyard with a bright green and white paint scheme that absolutely popped on the racetrack.
Gray qualified 14th and ran top 15 most of the day, but transmission issues late in the event left him with a disappointing 31st-place finish.
Next Stop
From a chaotic road course to a chaotic superspeedway.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has a week off before heading to the biggest racetrack on the schedule, Talladega Superspeedway. Luckily, it’s only the second race of the Round of 8, so those who find themselves in trouble after Talladega have one more shot to make the Championship 4.
Enfinger is the defending winner of the race.
Coverage for the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega Superspeedway begins at approximately 4 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 17. FOX Sports 1 continues its exclusive television coverage of the Truck Series playoffs, while the NASCAR Racing Network continues its exclusive season-long radio coverage of the 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. 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.