October 3, 2025 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Corey Heim parlays overtime restart into record 10th NASCAR Truck Series win

CONCORD, N.C.—Recovering from a first-lap crash in “Calamity Corner”, Corey Heim rallied to win Friday’s EcoSave 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, setting a single-season NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series record with his 10th win of the 2025 campaign.

Driving a heavily taped No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota, Heim took the lead by staying out for an overtime restart while teammate Brent Crews, who had led a race-high 56 laps, pitted for fuel and tires.

Heim drove away on the restart and beat runner-up Crews to the finish line by 1.338 seconds, leading the first-ever 1-2-3 finish for TRICON, with rookie Gio Ruggiero coming home third.

“It was not easy today—I think it was probably the toughest one of the year so far,” said Heim, who secured a spot in the Oct. 31 Championship 4 finale at Phoenix Raceway. “Just shows the resilience of this TRICON team. They fixed it up so good for me after that incident on the first lap—just kind of out of our control.

“I thought we were done, honestly. The right front completely folded when it hit the wall over there.”

In fact, the race was just a few seconds old when three Playoff drivers tangled in Turn 1, nicknamed “Calamity Corner” as the frequent scene of accidents at the 2.28-mile, 17-turn circuit.

Contact from Grant Enfinger sent second-place starter Layne Riggs spinning in a collision that knocked the No. 11 Toyota of Heim, the pole winner and runaway series leader, into the Turn 1 barrier.

All three trucks sustained damage, with Heim suffering a left-rear tire rub that required multiple pit stops to correct.

“We were not as good as we were in practice and qualifying after that damage,” said the 23-year-old Heim, who earned his first victory at the Roval and the 21st of his career, seventh all-time. “My steering wheel was about 45 degrees to the left, and we came down pit road like six times to try to get it back to at least somewhat where it was.”

As Heim worked his way back to the front after the accident, Crews dominated, though he short-pitted in both the first and second stages to set up track position after the breaks.

In fact, Crews appeared bound for his first victory in the series before another TRICON teammate, Toni Breidinger, stalled in Turn 5 to cause the fourth and final caution, sending the race to overtime.

Crews came to pit road from the lead with third-place Connor Zilisch, as Heim stayed on track with Connor Mosack, Riggs and Chandler Smith.

Riggs, who had been racing without a sway bar since the early crash, suffered clutch issues on the restart and held up the outside lane. With trucks spinning behind him, Heim opened a gap and maintained it throughout the two-lap extra period.

“We had a super-fast truck, as you got to see,” Crews said philosophically. “I’m out there leading the race today—I had a blast. Really happy for TRICON today to go 1-2-3, and congrats to the whole 11 team. They did a great job all day as well.

“I was happy to see them get back up there, but I definitely didn’t want to see stay out there (for the overtime).”

With Heim advancing to the Championship 4, the other seven Playoff drivers left the opening race in the Round of 8 clustered together around the elimination line. Daniel Hemric (11th Friday after starting from the rear) and Tyler Ankrum (ninth) are second and third in the standings, two points above the cut line.

Fourth-place finisher Rajah Caruth is fourth in the standings, just one point to the good over Riggs, two clear of defending series champion Ty Majeski and four ahead of Enfinger and Kaden Honeycutt, who won the first and second stages before finishing 14th.

Zilisch came home fifth in Friday’s race, followed by Josh Bilicki, Enfinger, Majeski, Ankrum and Mosack. Riggs finished 21st to drop below the cut line and was still steamed about the first-lap incident after the race.

“We just got wrecked by the 9 (Enfinger),” Riggs said. “I don’t really understand what his thought process is. People say you’re supposed to take advice from the veterans and learn from them of how to race, and they race the worst out of anybody.

“That’s twice this year we’ve gotten wrecked by the 9 truck—at Watkins Glen and here, both road courses, two separate incidents, two blatantly wrong on his part. We drug a sway bar arm off after that contact and just had a terrible handling truck the rest of the day.

“At the end, we were just going to try to salvage something, but something in the rear end housing broke, or a clutch started slipping, but I had no power there at the end.”


NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race Number 22
Race Results for the Ecosave 250 - Friday, October 3, 2025
Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course - Concord, NC - 2.28 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 70 Laps - 159.6 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Friday, 10/3/2025 @ 06:22 PM Eastern

Fin Str Trk Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 1 11 Corey Heim (P) Mobil 1 Toyota 70  8 43 Running 2 6 5
2 3 1 Brent Crews JBL Toyota 70 5 5 48 Running 3 56
3 7 17 Giovanni Ruggiero # First Auto Group Toyota 70 8  37 Running  
4 18 71 Rajah Caruth (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 70 7 3 45 Running  
5 6 7 Connor Zilisch(i) Delaware Life Chevrolet 70 6 7 0 Running  
6 10 41 Josh Bilicki(i) Circle B Diecast Chevrolet 70  10 0 Running  
7 4 9 Grant Enfinger (P) Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet 70  2 39 Running  
8 9 98 Ty Majeski (P) Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford 70 2  38 Running 1 1
9 11 18 Tyler Ankrum (P) LiUNA! Chevrolet 70 3 6 41 Running  
10 15 81 Connor Mosack # Apollo PEX Chevrolet 70   27 Running  
11 34 19 Daniel Hemric (P) NAPA Auto Care Chevrolet 70 4 4 40 Running  
12 12 45 Bayley Currey DQS Solutions & Staffing Chevrolet 70   25 Running  
13 19 26 Dawson Sutton # Rackley Roofing Chevrolet 70   24 Running  
14 5 52 Kaden Honeycutt (P) Halmar International Toyota 70 1 1 43 Running 2 7 2
15 31 20 Will Rodgers(i) Lanita Specialized Chevrolet 70   0 Running  
16 26 56 Timmy Hill Coble Enterprises/UNITS Toyota 70   21 Running  
17 17 42 Matt Mills Utilitra Chevrolet 70  9 22 Running  
18 8 77 Corey LaJoie Gainbridge Chevrolet 70 9  21 Running  
19 20 38 Chandler Smith The Pete Store Ford 70   18 Running  
20 32 76 Spencer Boyd Godspeed Auto Group Chevrolet 70   17 Running  
21 2 34 Layne Riggs (P) Clew Ford 70 10  17 Running  
22 27 91 Jack Wood Adaptive One Calipers Chevrolet 70   15 Running  
23 23 13 Jake Garcia Quanta Services Ford 70   14 Running  
24 24 88 Matt Crafton Ideal Door/Menards Ford 69   13 Running  
25 21 02 Ben Maier Top Liner Chevrolet 69   12 Running  
26 25 16 Kris Wright(i) F.N.B. Corporation Chevrolet 69   0 Running  
27 28 62 Wesley Slimp HNTB Toyota 69   10 Running  
28 29 33 Mason Maggio(i) Control Alt Protect Ford 69   0 Running  
29 33 69 Tyler Tomassi(i) Tomassi Law LLC Ford 69   0 Running  
30 30 5 Toni Breidinger # Overplay Toyota 63   7 Electrical  
31 14 15 Tanner Gray Factory Canopies Toyota 55   6 Transmission  
32 13 44 Andres Perez De Lara # Telcel Chevrolet 54   5 Running  
33 35 22 Josh Reaume Aerial Titans Ford 52   4 DVP  
34 36 2 Carter Fartuch Broll Mountain Vineyards Ford 24   3 Engine  
35 16 75 Parker Kligerman Borchetta Bourbon Chevrolet 20   2 Suspension  
36 22 99 Ben Rhodes TSPORT Trucks Ford 2   1 Accident  

Fastest Lap Bonus:  # 1  lap 25 / 86.666
                                                           
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 7 Mins, 16 Secs. Average Speed: 75.244 MPH Margin of Victory: 1.338 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 52, 98, 18, 19, 1, 7, 71, 17, 77, 34
Stage 2 Top 10: 52, 9, 71, 19, 1, 18, 7, 11, 42, 41

Race Comments: Corey Heim has won the Ecosave 250 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, his 21st career victory in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. Prior to the start of the race, the following trucks dropped to the rear for the reason indicated: No. 2 (Driver Change & Engine Change), No. 22 (Driver Change & Transmission), No. 16 (Unapproved Adjustments), No. 19 (Unapproved Adjustments), No. 38 (Unapproved Adjustments), No. 91 (Unapproved Adjustments), No. 02 (Unapproved Adjustments, No. 45 (Unapproved Adjustments).

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 4 for 12 laps; Laps: 4-6 (No. 99 Incident Turn 8 [None]); 22-24 (Stage 1 Conclusion [None]); 42-44 (Stage 2 Conclusion [33]); 66-68 (No. 5 Turn 5 Stalled [76]).

Lead Changes: 8 among 4 drivers; B. Crews 1-17; K. Honeycutt (P) 18-21; T. Majeski (P) 22; B. Crews 23-37; C. Heim (P) 38; K. Honeycutt (P) 39-41; B. Crews 42-65; C. Heim (P) 66-70.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: October 17, 2025 - Talladega Superspeedway

NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications @ P.O. Box 2875, Daytona Beach, FL 32120-2875


CURRENT NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES PLAYOFF STANDINGS

POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-

1 11 Corey Heim Toyota 1 ROUND OF 8 PLAYOFF WIN - 10 TOTAL WINS
2 18 Tyler Ankrum Chevrolet +2
3 19 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet +2
4 71 Rajah Caruth Chevrolet +1

CUTOFF LINE - 4 DRIVERS ELIMINATED AFTER MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY (OCT. 24)

5 34 Layne Riggs Ford -1
6 98 Ty Majeski Ford -2
7 9 Grant Enfinger Chevrolet -4
8 52 Kaden Honeycutt Toyota -4