Heim time in the Heartland: NASCAR Trucks at Kansas
It was Heim time in the Heartland as the young phenom took home his second win of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season Saturday at Kansas Speedway.
Corey Heim led four times for 79 laps. He took the lead on lap 70, with 65 laps to go, and no one could take it from him, outside of a green-flag pit stop cycle that lasted for seven laps.
Heim took the lead just two laps after the final restart. Christian Eckes capitalized on a good pit stop and led the field to the green flag before Nick Sanchez led a lap and then Heim took over.
For Heim, it is his seventh career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win but his first on a 1.5-mile oval.
“I feel like we’ve been so close. I feel like we were the best truck all year at mile and half race tracks last year, just weren’t able to close the deal. To get this one feels so good and I think we have many more ahead of us,” Heim said.
Heim is on a roll. In the last 38 Truck races, dating back to Pocono Raceway in July 2022, he has had 34 top-10 finishes. His only four finishes outside of the top-10 were Atlanta, Bristol dirt and Phoenix last year and Talladega in 2022. He also won last year’s regular-season championship, despite missing a race, and is on his way to doing it again this year with a seven-point lead over Christian Eckes.
Eckes led twice for 11 laps and finished third Saturday night, behind Heim and Zane Smith.
Smith led three times for 29 laps and claimed stage two after Heim claimed stage on but finished second.
After the race, Smith said he likely would’ve contended for the win had he not lost eight positions on pit road during the race.
Pit road also wasn’t kind to Kaden Honeycutt who had a standout night. Honeycutt mounted a strong challenge to Heim, challenging him for the lead and stalking him just before green-flag pit stops. Then, Honeycutt had troubles on pit road and fell back to fourth — his finish in the race, a career-high no less.
“Myself, I’m getting better. It sucks, it definitely sucks to come that close and not finish it off. But still, a great run. You’ve got to crawl before you walk, right? This is the start of something of our part-time schedule, so hopefully we can click off our first win in Charlotte in a couple of weeks,” Honeycutt said.
In four starts this season, Honeycutt has finished sixth at Atlanta, 12th at Bristol (with two stage points), ninth at Martinsville (eight stage points) and fourth at Kansas (13 stage points).
Brett Moffitt finished fifth in his return to the series. Dean Thompson earned his first top-10 finish since COTA last month, finishing eighth.
TOP-10 FINISHERS: Heim, Z. Smith, Eckes, Honeycutt, Moffitt, Sanchez, Tanner Gray, Thompson, Daniel Dye, Matt Crafton
STAGE ONE TOP-10: Corey Heim, Zane Smith, Christian Eckes, Chase Purdy, Kaden Honeycutt, Ben Rhodes, Connor Mosack, Tyler Ankrum, Ty Dillon, Daniel Dye
STAGE TWO TOP-10: Z. Smith, Heim, Eckes, Honeycutt, Purdy, Brett Moffitt, Nick Sanchez, Rajah Caruth, Mosack, Rhodes
Bayley Currey faded to 11th after running inside the top-10 late. Currey described the night as a “step in the right direction,” commending the speed his truck and his pit crew had.
“I really wanted to get that first top-10 tonight for the AutoVentive / Precision Chevy Silverado, but it just wasn’t meant to be. We just got too tight there at the end, got caught up in some lapped traffic, and lost it right at the end. I was trying everything I could to make my way around but just couldn’t make it work,” Currey said.
“It is what it is, I’m happy with the gains we made and the speed we had. Bringing back a clean truck is good for this five-race stretch,” he added.
Rounding out the lead-lap drivers were Grant Enfinger, Rajah Caruth and independent driver Bret Holmes in 12th-14th, respectively.
Repco Supercars star Cam Waters finished 19th. He lost a fierce battle for position with Layne Riggs but added another “Welcome to NASCAR” moment to his scrapbook.
Waters slid into Riggs, damaging their trucks while racing hard for 18th. Riggs bumped into him coming to the line and finished ahead of him. However, he wasn’t happy with Waters.
Behind them, Tyler Ankrum finished 20th after struggling. He wasn’t the only perennial frontrunner with issues. Taylor Gray finished 27th after having a right-front tire issue in the final stage. Behind him was pole sitter Chase Purdy.
Shotgun on the field in the final running order was Ty Majeski in 33rd. Majeski had a tire issue and hit the wall, ending his race after 10 of 134 laps. That brought out the only caution for cause on lap 3.
Majeski is still +88 points to the playoff cutline, while Ankrum is +73 and Gray is +68. Purdy and Riggs have a lot of ground to make up if they want to catch Grant Enfinger.
Enfinger holds the last playoff spot halfway through the regular season, going into race no. 9 at Darlington Raceway (May 10, 7:30 p.m. ET; FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90):
Discover more from The Racing Experts
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com