Corey Heim earns first career Cup Series win at Naval Base Coronado

CORONADO, CALIF. — In his 13th career NASCAR Cup Series start, Corey Heim picked up the win, the first of his career, in the Anduril 250 at Naval Base Coronado after a chaotic race full of spins, mechanical failures and even a red flag.  

Stage 1

Shane van Gisbergen started the race on pole, and for much of the first half of the race, it seemed that the race would eventually come down between him, Austin Hill, and Ryan Blaney. Blaney was able to win the first stage, his second stage victory of the season, after Bubba Wallace brought out the caution when he lost his right front wheel. 

Stage 2

On lap 24, disaster nearly struck for a big portion of the field, as van Gisbergen and Chris Buescher made contact, with the latter spinning in the middle of the track. Buescher somehow did a full 360 rotation while blocking the track without causing a major pileup, and the race continued under green flag conditions. 

Brent Crews, who took over behind the wheel for Christopher Bell during the first caution, suffered a mechanical failure on lap 30, ending his Cup Series debut prematurely.

On the restart, Hill and Connor Zilisch were battling for the lead when Hill appeared to miss a corner, driving Zilisch directly into the wall. A number of contenders were involved in the crash, including van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, and Ryan Blaney. Hill, Zilisch, and van Gisbergen were knocked out of the race, while Gibbs and Blaney were able to continue. Before his day came to a premature end, Zilisch did make history. According to NASCAR Insights, he became the youngest driver in Cup Series history to lead a lap on a road course.

Ryan Preece then went on to win the second stage, his second stage win of the current campaign. 

Stage 3

Kyle Larson and Blaney led the field for the majority of the final stage. As the run continued, Blaney was the first front-runner to make his pit stop while Corey Heim began to cut down Larson’s lead. Heim cut the lead to roughly half a second before both he and Larson dipped into the pit lane with 16 laps remaining. Buescher and Zane Smith had both already made their final pitstop and jumped Larson and Heim, forcing them to attempt to run them down. 

The caution flag flew with 15 laps remaining, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr dropped a considerable amount of oil in turn two after blowing his engine.

Carson Hocevar was able to take the lead after a lucky break on pit road, giving him control of the restart. Tyler Reddick had a tremendous restart, getting himself into the lead. While battling for second place, Hocevar got turned by Heim, sending him to the back of the pack. After that, 23XI Racing were running first, second, and third with 11 laps remaining at Naval Base Coronado.

Larson was able to get past Wallace with five laps to go, disrupting 23XI’s potential 1-2-3 finish. Meanwhile, eight seconds ahead of them on the track, Heim cut Reddick’s lead to half a second.

Heim took the lead with three to go, but Reddick didn’t give it up without a fight. After accidentally running his teammate into the wall, Reddick showed sportsmanship by allowing Heim to regain his lead.

Moments later, Reddick’s left-front tire gave out on him while he was running in second place with two laps to go.

Despite some nervous moments, as it seemed the caution flag may come out for Reddick’s tire, Heim was able to hold on to win his first Cup Series race at Naval Base Coronado in his 13th career start.

His teammate Bubba Wallace was able to hold on to finish second, followed by Larson, Zane Smith, AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Riley Herbst, Ryan Blaney, and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.

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