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Corey Heim parlays overtime restart into record 10th NASCAR Truck Series win
October 3, 2025
By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service
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 – Ecosave 250
Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course
Concord, North Carolina
Friday, October 3, 2025
- (1) Corey Heim (P), Toyota, 70.
- (3) Brent Crews, Toyota, 70.
- (7) Giovanni Ruggiero #, Toyota, 70.
- (18) Rajah Caruth (P), Chevrolet, 70.
- (6) Connor Zilisch(i), Chevrolet, 70.
- (10) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 70.
- (4) Grant Enfinger (P), Chevrolet, 70.
- (9) Ty Majeski (P), Ford, 70.
- (11) Tyler Ankrum (P), Chevrolet, 70.
- (15) Connor Mosack #, Chevrolet, 70.
- (34) Daniel Hemric (P), Chevrolet, 70.
- (12) Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 70.
- (19) Dawson Sutton #, Chevrolet, 70.
- (5) Kaden Honeycutt (P), Toyota, 70.
- (31) Will Rodgers(i), Chevrolet, 70.
- (26) Timmy Hill, Toyota, 70.
- (17) Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 70.
- (8) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 70.
- (20) Chandler Smith, Ford, 70.
- (32) Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 70.
- (2) Layne Riggs (P), Ford, 70.
- (27) Jack Wood, Chevrolet, 70.
- (23) Jake Garcia, Ford, 70.
- (24) Matt Crafton, Ford, 69.
- (21) Ben Maier, Chevrolet, 69.
- (25) Kris Wright(i), Chevrolet, 69.
- (28) Wesley Slimp, Toyota, 69.
- (29) Mason Maggio(i), Ford, 69.
- (33) Tyler Tomassi(i), Ford, 69.
- (30) Toni Breidinger #, Toyota, Electrical, 63.
- (14) Tanner Gray, Toyota, Transmission, 55.
- (13) Andres Perez De Lara #, Chevrolet, 54.
- (35) Josh Reaume, Ford, DVP, 52.
- (36) Carter Fartuch, Ford, Engine, 24.
- (16) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, Suspension, 20.
- (22) Ben Rhodes, Ford, Accident, 2.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 75.244 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 7 Mins, 16 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.338 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 12 laps.
Lead Changes: 8 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: 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.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Brent Crews 3 times for 56 laps; Kaden Honeycutt (P) 2 times for 7 laps; Corey Heim (P) 2 times for 6 laps; Ty Majeski (P) 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 52,98,18,19,1,7,71,17,77,34
Stage #2 Top Ten: 52,9,71,19,1,18,7,11,42,41
