Truck Playoff Field Set As Heim Cruises To Top Seed

Corey Heim is the top-seeded driver to start the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs. (HHP/Harold Hinson photo)

RICHMOND, Va. – There’s no doubt who the top seed is entering the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs, and it isn’t even remotely close.

On the strength of seven race victories, 15 stage wins, and the most dominant regular season in Truck Series history, Corey Heim comes into the seven-race postseason stretch with 2,065 points – the base total of 2,000 plus a whopping 65 playoff points earned in the first 18 races.

It gives him a remarkable 62-point buffer – more than a full race – over the elimination line going into the Round of 10 opener at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 30.

Statistically speaking, not only did Heim set a regular-season record with 848 total points scored, his seven wins and 65 playoff points also set new high-water marks in Truck Series competition as well.

His nearest competition in the reseeded point standings is two-time season winner Layne Riggs, who begins his championship quest at 2,026 and has a 39-point gap if he wants to get to Heim in the first round.

Riggs won two of the last five races in the regular season, triumphing at both Pocono Raceway and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The third seed is Riggs’ Front Row Motorsports’ teammate Chandler Smith, also a two-time winner this year after collecting trophies at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway early in the spring.

Smith opens his playoff run at 2,019 points. Riggs and Smith finished second and third, respectively, behind Heim in the final regular season standings.

Daniel Hemric, one of two McAnally-Hilgemann Racing drivers in the playoff field, won at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in April and ranks as the No. 4 seed at 2,011 points.

Hemric’s teammate Tyler Ankrum comes into playoff action tied with ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski, the defending Truck Series champion, at 2,010 points but gets the fifth seed on a tiebreaker thanks to his springtime win at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.

Majeski starts off his title defense as the No. 6 seed, trailed by Grant Enfinger (2,007), Rajah Caruth (2,005), Kaden Honeycutt (2,003), and Jake Garcia (2,002), who secured the final playoff berth on points Friday night at Richmond over teammate and two-time series titlist Ben Rhodes.

Honeycutt locked into the playoff field after earning enough stage points in Friday’s opening stage that he could not be caught, even if there had been a new winner under the lights.

Instead, all the laurels went to Heim, who said he and his Scott Zipadelli-led team can’t rest on what they’ve done up to this point despite their mammoth advantage starting the final seven races.

“I don’t think our mindset changes going into any of these [playoff] races, really,” Heim admitted. “With the buffer we have, I think it builds our confidence going in that we’ve been there, done that, and won when we needed to win already. I also think it’s a good caliber of tracks in the first round that play to some of our strengths and that we’re plenty capable of running well at.

“You’re never guaranteed anything in this sport, though, so we have to keep going out there and performing. If we let up, it can just as easily swing back the wrong direction on us.”

Broadcast coverage of the Round of 10 opener, the Sober or Slammer 200 from Darlington, airs Aug. 30 at noon ET live on FS1, the NASCAR Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.