Heim Caps Truck Regular Season With Richmond Score

RICHMOND, Va. – The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular season ended just the way it started: with TRICON Garage’s Corey Heim celebrating a victory.

Heim might not have had the dominant truck Friday at Richmond Raceway, but he was the best when it mattered, controlling the final laps of the eero 250 for his series-leading seventh win of the year.

Though a wild scrum on the race’s final restart with 35 to go saw NASCAR Xfinity Series interloper Sammy Smith scoot out to the lead initially, Heim settled into second and fended off a challenge from his rookie teammate Gio Ruggiero before going to work on the pursuit.

The 23-year-old from Marietta, Ga., slowly but surely ate into Smith’s advantage until he reached the rear bumper of the leading No. 7 Chevrolet Silverado RST.

From there, Heim used the momentum of the outside groove in the 14-degree banked corners, eventually clearing Smith with 20 laps left down the back straightaway.

Heim opened up a lead of more than a second before race-long dominator Ty Majeski could get past Smith into second place, then maintained the gap all the way to the checkered flag.

The No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro – perhaps the Truck Series’ lone constant throughout the first 18 races this season – crossed the finish line in front by a comfortable .923-second margin over Majeski, further entrenching Heim as the top seed entering the playoffs.

It wasn’t his most dominant win, by any means, but Heim felt no less rewarded by the end result.

“This one is awesome. We’ve carved on this track for a while to try and get better here,” said Heim, who had finished no better than fifth at Richmond prior to Friday night. “We’ve been in position for a lot of [wins] this year – I feel like we were the best truck at Martinsville and (North) Wilkesboro, but I felt like they got away from us. We kind of got this one back – I didn’t feel like we were the best truck tonight.

“The 98 (Majeski) was obviously really stout, but he had a run in and got some damage, so being able to be there when it counted was the first goal, and we were and just executed from there,” he continued. “Huge thank you to TRICON Garage, Toyota, Safelite … everyone that makes it happen for me.

“It’s been an incredible run to this point. Now we just have to keep it going to chase a championship.”

Heim might have started from the pole position, but Friday’s showdown under the lights was dominated by ThorSport Racing’s Majeski, who had the best long-run speed of anyone, swept both stages and led six times for a race-high 143 laps.

But the Seymour, Wis., native and defending Truck Series champion’s night took a turn with 51 to go, when his teammate Matt Crafton got to his bumper in turns three and four just after another truck had laid fluid down throughout the corner.

Crafton slid up into Majeski, spinning the latter out of the race lead before backing into the wall in his own right, severely damaging the familiar Menards-sponsored entry of the three-time titlist.

Majeski was able to continue somewhat unhindered, dropping to second behind Smith and actually being able to come down pit lane under the yellow for his final set of fresh Goodyear tires.

The problem was, Heim and others were able to pit as well, putting the frontrunners on a largely level playing field going into the final stint. Smith and Majeski lined up on the front row for the restart.

From the inside of the second row, Ruggiero – in a must-win situation to make the postseason – delivered a shot to Majeski’s rear bumper that broke the momentum of the No. 98, allowing Corey LaJoie to bulldoze his way up the inside and nearly make it four-wide for the lead in turn two.

A second bump, this time from LaJoie to Majeski, shuffled Majeski into the middle of three-wide and he was split by Ruggiero down low and Heim up high as he began to fade slightly.

Ruggiero tried all he could to work over Heim on the inside, but Heim finally broke free of the battle with 27 laps left and quickly tracked down Smith before making the race-winning pass on lap 231.

Majeski rallied and got back to second with 17 laps left, but ran out of time to catch Heim and reclaim the win that arguably should have been his for most of the night.

“You always want to win. When we got spun there [by Crafton] when there was oil on the racetrack, there’s a pretty big wicker on that right-rear, and my balance just went away a little bit,” Majeski explained afterward. “Even though it was probably good for aero, it was a little bit too good, and just made me a little bit too tight on that last run.

“Once I lost control of the race, the 17 was obviously pretty desperate [for a win] … and he moved me a couple times and I lost control,” Majeski added. “By the time I got to second I was pretty much done there. I’m very disappointed. We had a fast Soda Sense Ford F-150. Just didn’t fall our way at the end.”

Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs crossed third, followed by the Spire Motorsports duo of Smith and LaJoie.

Ruggiero dropped to sixth, unable to break into the playoff field, with Jake Garcia successfully defending the 10th and final berth into the championship chase by finishing a quiet seventh.

Another of Garcia’s teammates, two-time Truck Series champion Ben Rhodes, finished eighth and was the first man on the wrong side of the cut line by 21 points at the end of the night.

Chandler Smith and Kaden Honeycutt, in his first race subbing for the injured Stewart Friesen, closed the top 10.

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs begin Saturday, Aug. 30 at historic Darlington (S.C.) Raceway with the Sober or Slammer 200, the first time the track has hosted a Truck Series playoff race.

Heim, Riggs, Chandler Smith, Majeski, Daniel Hemric, Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum, Honeycutt, Garcia, and Rajah Caruth make up the field of 10 drivers vying for the Truck Series title.

Race Results