Corey Heim is not a championship contender in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in 2026, but the 23-year-old continues to show up on a part-time basis with TRICON Garage and continues to find his way into Victory Lane.
The Marietta, Georgia-native got behind the wheel of the No. 1 CELSIUS Toyota Tundra TRD Pro in Saturday’s DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 at Michigan International Speedway, and proved his supremacy once again, making a late-race pass on Carson Hocevar to earn his 26th career victory. In his five NASCAR Truck Series starts this year, Heim has been to Victory Lane three times – Darlington, Rockingham, and Michigan.
Heim paced the field for the final 15 laps of Saturday’s 125-lap contest from Michigan but still had to fend off a challenge from teammate Kaden Honeycutt, which came down to the last lap, when the No. 11 faded high to try and get to the leader’s outside. Heim quickly threw a block, which resulted in slight contact, and the CELSIUS-sponsored Toyota kept the lead, and went on to win by 0.065 seconds.
“I appreciate the help from the No. 11 [Kaden Honeycutt] and No. 62 [Christopher Bell] all day to kind of get us away from the pack, I thought we had the three of four best trucks running up front. So, they did a nice job getting us out front, we kind of discussed that pre-race and we were going to race it out at the end,” Heim said. “And that’s what we did. He tried to get to my right-rear there, which would have probably won him the race, so I had to protect it.”
For the second time this year, Honeycutt and Heim were engaged in a full-contact last-lap battle for the victory. Both at Rockingham and Michigan, Heim, driving the multi-driver entry for TRICON Garage, was able to prevail over the defending NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion.
Carson Hocevar, returning to the seat of the No. 77 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Spire Motorsports, led a race-high 65 laps on the afternoon, and was clearly among the best of the best, but chose to take two tires on a late pit stop, which caused him to build tight and fade from the lead late in the race.
Front Row Motorsports teammates Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith finished fourth and fifth, after spending much of the final run of the race trying to work together to get back to the lead trio of Heim, Honeycutt, and Hocevar.
Christopher Bell started on the outside of the front row for Saturday’s event and led 37 laps, second-most to Hocevar, but had to come from the middle of the pack after the final pit stop of the race, which made it so that the Halmar Friesen Racing No. 62 lost touch with the lead pack.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. brought the No. 42 Chevrolet Silverado RST home in seventh, with Connor Mosack eighth, Jake Garcia ninth, and Tyler Ankrum rounding out the top 10.
Cleetus McFarland made his second NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start on Saturday at Michigan, finishing on the lead lap in 25th. McFarland was the subject of one caution flag, at Lap 69, when he spun off Turn 2, avoiding contact with the wall.
ThorSport Racing had a difficult afternoon at Michigan on Saturday, with Ty Majeski and Cole Butcher both crashing out of the event. Ben Rhodes, who ran out of fuel in qualifying, finished 21st, after making contact with the wall a couple of times. Jake Garcia was the only one of the team’s drivers to finish inside the top 20, coming home ninth.
Layne Riggs, after winning each of the series’ last two events at Charlotte and Nashville, continues to lead the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series points by 26 markers over Kaden Honeycutt. Chandler Smith, Gio Ruggiero, and Christian Eckes round out the top-five.
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series will take a weekend off before returning to competition at Naval Base Coronado on Friday, June 19.
