Loudon Rout Helps Heim Match Biffle’s Truck Series Record

Corey Heim celebrates winning Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Matthew Thacker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

LOUDON, N.H. – On a record-setting day for himself in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Corey Heim was peerless in winning the Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Heim swept both stages and went on to win outright at the ‘Magic Mile’, leading a race-high 124 of 175 laps en route to his ninth win of the year and the 20th of his standout Truck Series career.

Not only did Heim become the youngest driver in history – and the seventh overall – to reach the 20-win threshold in Truck Series competition, he also tied Greg Biffle’s single-season wins record set back in 1999.

It was the cap on a near-flawless first round of the playoffs for Heim, who won two of the three races in the Round of 10 and goes into the second-round reset as the overwhelming top seed.

“It’s a dream come true to be able to race with these [TRICON Garage] guys,” Heim said after climbing from his car on the frontstretch. “It seems like everywhere we go this year, we’re a contender or we win, so I can’t say enough about Scott [Zipadelli, crew chief] and everyone that lays a hand on this [No.] 11 truck.

“We want to keep it going now. We’ve got four more races left and I want to break that record,” Heim added. “To even share it right now with Greg Biffle, though, he’s a great dude and I’m honored to be competing at a high level like he did all those years ago. This has been a dream year for me personally in my career, and hopefully we can finish it off right.”

Not only did Heim match the Truck Series single-season win record, he also set the tour mark for stage wins (37) and won for the fifth time after sweeping both stages, second to Kyle Busch in that category.

Eight cautions slowed Saturday’s race, starting early with an opening-lap, opening-corner incident that eliminated Connor Mosack and involved Tanner Gray and Brent Crews in its wake as well.

But it was the pair of cautions in the final stage – one with 49 laps left and another with 43 to go – that bunched the field up behind Heim and gave his pursuers a chance to rally back.

Heim had already taken control prior to that, though, after jumping from third to first on a lap-108 restart near the end of stage two when Rajah Caruth struggled to fire off on older tires.

He never looked back, even with the best efforts of Front Row Motorsports’ Chandler Smith trying to run him down in the waning moments.

Smith got to second on the final restart, following cleanup from a four-truck melee in turn three which eliminated Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, and Toni Breidinger, and spent the final 33 laps chasing Heim for the win he needed to jump above the elimination line.

He cut the deficit down under a second several times in the last 10 circuits, but struggled to navigate traffic as efficiently as Heim did and could only watch futilely as he fell one spot short of staying alive in the championship hunt.

“I had a fast truck that was capable of winning,” lamented Smith. “I started hauling butt there at the end and running down the [No.] 11 [Heim], but just ran out of laps.”

Smith’s FRM teammate Layne Riggs crossed third ahead of rookie Gio Ruggiero and defending Truck Series champion Ty Majeski.

Grant Enfinger, Kaden Honeycutt, Corey LaJoie, Christian Eckes, and Rajah Caruth closed out the top 10.

Caruth held off Smith by 10 points for the final spot in the second playoff round, and he’ll be joined by Heim, Riggs, Majeski, Daniel Hemric, Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum, and Honeycutt in the resumption of the title tilt Oct. 3 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.

Alongside Smith, Jake Garcia was also bounced from the playoffs Saturday, after a nondescript 16th-place finish where the ThorSport Racing young gun never showed any speed to contend with.

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