July 12, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Corey Heim wins Craftsman Truck Series race at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. — Corey Heim earned his series’ best fifth victory of the season in Friday evening’s rain-interrupted CRC Brakleen 175 at Pocono Raceway. The 21-year-old driver swept both stages and led 55 of the 70 laps to add to his trophy total.

But he had to battle competitors and climate for this win.

The Georgian’s No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota led Grant Enfinger’s Chevrolet across the finish line by 0.867 seconds to take his 10th career victory — quickly re-establishing himself as the race leader — again — on the final restart with three laps remaining.

“It started from the very beginning, we’ve had such a close bond,” Heim said of his strong working relationship with crew chief Scott Zipadelli and the career-best single season win mark.

“Week in and week out, so proud of these guys, can’t say enough about them,” Heim said.

Rain drops covered the windshields of the trucks — particularly in Turn 2 of the 2.5-mile Pocono track — and eventually brought out a caution flag for weather with only nine laps remaining in the race. But after parking on pit road for just over 10 minutes of red-flag stoppage, the field returned to the track for a lap only to come back down pit road again as the rain got heavier with seven laps remaining.

Not surprisingly, Heim immediately told his crew the rain was substantial. Enfinger, who was 2.2 seconds behind Heim at the time of the initial red flag, was optimistic it was going to be a brief shower. NASCAR had already determined before the green flag that the race would be official no matter the circumstance at 8:20 p.m. ET — approximately one hour and 10 minutes after the first red flag waved Friday evening.

But the sun shone on the restart allowing enough laps to complete the race — a light rain beginning again during drivers’ post-race interviews.

Enfinger’s second-place finish equals his best mark of the year — also at North Wilkesboro — and certainly helped solidify the CR7 Motorsports driver’s position in the playoff standings. He is in seventh place with only two races remaining before the 2024 playoffs begin Aug. 25 at the Milwaukee Mile Speedway.

McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes finished third, followed by Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain, driving for Niece Motorsports.

The closing laps featured close racing up front with many among the lead pack having to be conscious about saving fuel — a variable then made moot with the rain stoppage. Heim was trying to hold off the hard-charging, highly motivated veteran Enfinger, who was racing for his first win of the season while Eckes had to hold off Chastain for third place.

The pole-winner Eckes led the race’s opening 11 laps in the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevy and finished second to race-winner Heim in both stages. But a slow pit stop during the second stage break forced Eckes to play catch-up. He restarted 10th but was up to fourth place within five laps and continued to move forward.

He rallied to that ultimate third-place showing giving him a series best 12-race streak of top-10 finishes and he still holds a 32-point edge on Heim for the regular season championship.

The first caution flag for a race incident came out with 26 laps remaining when Rajah Caruth spun on track. At the time Heim led Chastain by almost three seconds. As the trucks drove under caution, drivers were alerted that rain was imminent, so the front-runners did not pit.

Chase Purdy, Stewart Friesen, Matt Crafton, Dean Thompson and Caruth rounded out the top 10.

With only two races remaining to set the 10-driver playoff field, Daniel Dye holds a single-point edge on Tanner Gray in that 10th position and a slight four-point advantage over Friesen.

Only four full-time series drivers have won this season to claim automatic playoff berths including Heim, Eckes, Friday’s 13th place finisher Nick Sanchez and Caruth.

The Craftsman Truck Series moves to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for Friday’s TSport 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Ty Majeski won last year’s race by more than three seconds over Eckes. Championship leader Heim was eighth.

NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed in the Truck Series garage, confirming Heim as the winner. The No. 45 truck of Chastain had one lug nut not secured.



NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Number 14
Race Results for the CRC Brakleen 175 - Friday, July 12, 2024
Pocono Raceway - Long Pond, PA - 2.5 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 70 Laps - 175. Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Friday, 7/12/2024 @ 08:01 PM Eastern

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 2 11 Corey Heim Safelite Toyota 70 1 1 60 Running 2 55 7
2 8 9 Grant Enfinger Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet 70 5 4 48 Running  
3 1 19 Christian Eckes NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet 70 2 2 52 Running 1 11
4 19 17 Taylor Gray Place of Hope Toyota 70 8  36 Running  
5 27 45 Ross Chastain(i) Mar-Del Watermelon Association Chevrolet 70  7 0 Running  
6 16 77 Chase Purdy Bama Buggies Chevrolet 70   31 Running  
7 10 52 Stewart Friesen Halmar International Toyota 70 9 8 35 Running  
8 15 88 Matt Crafton OSI/Menards Ford 70   29 Running  
9 22 5 Dean Thompson Thompson Pipe Group Toyota 70   28 Running  
10 3 71 Rajah Caruth HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 70   27 Running  
11 13 42 Matt Mills J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet 70  10 27 Running  
12 30 32 Bret Holmes Best Value Carriers Chevrolet 70   25 Running  
13 9 2 Nick Sanchez Gainbridge Chevrolet 70 7  28 Running  
14 4 18 Tyler Ankrum LiUNA! Chevrolet 70 3 5 37 Running  
15 18 7 Connor Mosack Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Chevrolet 70   22 Running  
16 5 43 Daniel Dye Champion Container Chevrolet 70 4 3 36 Running  
17 20 41 Bayley Currey DQS Chevrolet 70   20 Running  
18 7 99 Ben Rhodes Kubota Ford 70   19 Running  
19 11 15 Tanner Gray Operation 300 Toyota 70 10 9 21 Running  
20 21 91 Zane Smith(i) SpeedyCash.com Chevrolet 70   0 Running  
21 12 13 Jake Garcia Quanta Services Ford 70   16 Running 1 4
22 28 66 Luke Fenhaus Soda Sense Ford 70   15 Running  
23 25 56 Timmy Hill Coble Enterprises Toyota 70   14 Running  
24 29 02 Mason Massey BRUNT Chevrolet 70   13 Running  
25 14 25 Ty Dillon Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 70   12 Running  
26 26 1 Kris Wright America's Auto Auction/Esmark Toyota 70   11 Running  
27 32 22 Mason Maggio SI Yachts Ford 70   10 Running  
28 36 90 Justin Carroll Carroll's Automotive/Duratain Toyota 70   9 Running  
29 31 46 Thad Moffitt # Restaurant Depot Chevrolet 70   8 Running  
30 17 38 Layne Riggs # Infinity Communications Group Ford 69   7 Running  
31 6 98 Ty Majeski Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford 68 6 6 16 Running  
32 24 33 Lawless Alan AUTODockit Ford 68   5 Running  
33 33 21 Sage Karam(i) CRC Brakleen Ford 67   0 Running  
34 34 28 Bryan Dauzat FDNY Racing Chevrolet 65   3 Running  
35 35 27 Stephen Mallozzi NUGGETTRAP.COM Ford 22   0 Transmission  
36 23 76 Spencer Boyd Erickson Manufacturing Chevrolet 5   1 Hub  

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 32 Mins, 42 Secs. Average Speed: 113.269 MPH Margin of Victory: .867 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 11, 19, 18, 43, 9, 98, 2, 17, 52, 15
Stage 2 Top 10: 11, 19, 43, 9, 18, 98, 45, 52, 15, 42

Caution Flags: 4 for 17 laps; Laps: 17-20 (Stage 1 Conclusion [90]); 32-36 (Stage 2 Conclusion [38]); 46-48 (Nos. 7, 71 Incident Turn 1 [13]); 63-67 (Weather - Precipitation [Red Flag 1 00:10:30] [Red Flag 2 00:23:50] [91]).

Lead Changes: 3 among 3 drivers; C. Eckes 1-11; C. Heim 12-32; J. Garcia 33-36; C. Heim 37-70.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: July 19, 2024 - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park

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