Twenty-six NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins in 96 starts with a title.
First NASCAR Cup Series win at 23 years old in just his 13th start. Second win just two races later. Youngest driver to win the Brickyard 400 since Jeff Gordon.
That’s some serious star potential.
Even more remarkable: Corey Heim’s three Truck and two Cup wins in 2026 have come with him running a part-time schedule. Not just part time in those series — he’s not running a full schedule in any NASCAR national series this year, and he’s been out of a NASCAR racecar more weekends than he’s been in one.
Heim won his first Cup Series race in June on the street course at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, where he beat teammate Bubba Wallace to the checkers by more than 10 seconds. That was a feat in itself, but one that was perhaps too easily glossed over as the first race on the track, or a kid having one great day.
But two starts later, Heim put up a win that can’t be brushed off as a one-time thing. Aggressively blocking his 23XI Racing car owner, Denny Hamlin, who is a sure-fire NASCAR Hall of Famer, on the final restart to take the lead, Heim never relinquished it in the closing laps, even with Christopher Bell and three-time champion Joey Logano growing larger in his mirror with every lap. His No. 67 lacked grip on the final run and wanted to wash up the track, but beyond a couple of small slides in a couple of corners, Heim made no mistakes. He beat Bell, possibly the hungriest driver in the field with multiple runner-up finishes in 2026 but no wins, to the finish by 0.287 seconds.
The last driver to rake in two wins in just 15 Cup Starts? Not Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt. Not Gordon or Hamlin. Nope, it was before all of their time, an accomplishment so rare you have to go back more than six decades to find another: AJ Foyt in 1965.
You know, like a newly-turned 24-year-old kid who isn’t even a full-time rookie yet does.
Heim had already turned heads with his Truck Series success, including a 2025 season where he won 12 of 25 races en route to the series title.
But it’s not just his impressive record that makes Heim stand out. When Carson Hocevar, another talented youngster, took exception with the way Heim raced on Sunday (July 26) and flipped him the middle finger during the race, Heim didn’t start a pit road shouting match — he was too busy celebrating — nor did he ignore the gesture.
He fired shots back.
When asked about Hocevar during his post-race media availability, Heim responded, “You guys love talking about guys that finished ninth.”
He took another shot on Monday during an interview.
Not only is Heim showing what he can do on the track, he’s showing who he is off of it — something that many drivers, or at least their public relations people, shy away from.
And don’t forget: he has yet to run a full season in the Cup Series. He’ll do that next year, taking over the No. 35 from Riley Herbst. Running part time can be detrimental to a driver and a team. It’s hard to find a rhythm when you’re not at the track every week and working on improving communication and tweaking setups. Crew chief Bootie Barker isn’t on top of the pit box full time either (and he may not be next year, as he works full time in a team-wide capacity).
Which leads to this: What will Heim do when he’s running full time with a full-time team around him and a crew chief who’ll have the chance to learn his driver inside out when they’re out there every week?
The Cup season is a long one, and even a driver with as much promise as Heim has shown will face a steep learning curve. The schedule is 11 races longer than the Truck season with very few weeks off. When things go well, that’s great, but it’s back to work the next day. When things don’t go well, there’s no time to recoup; it’s back to work the next day. The competition is deeper than Trucks, and there are more teams capable of winning every week.
But there’s no doubt that Heim will be competing for race wins. A Chase berth is not only possible but a strong likelihood. Could he win a title as a rookie, something that’s never been done?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But Heim will compete for wins, and if Sunday is any indication, he won’t take getting pushed around. He might even show some personality along the way, like Hocevar, shying away from the vanilla tag so many drivers end up with.
The NASCAR landscape is changing. Kyle Busch is gone. Hamlin will retire after next year. Logano is a veteran, not a kid anymore. Even the young guns from just a few years ago — Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott — are in their 30s, established veterans as well.
The next group of up-and-comers, led by Heim and including Hocevar, Connor Zilisch and Jesse Love, have shown that they’ll be fierce competitors on the track, while not afraid to share their personalities off of it, even if that means their tempers flare.
2027 could be quite a year.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.