Nobody at Kansas Speedway needed a watch Friday night, as the clock struck Heim Time for Corey Heim and TRICON Garage. Heim took home the win in the Kubota Tractor 200, his sixth victory of the 2024 Truck Series season.
The win gives Heim a sweep of the two Kansas races on the schedule, and his win snapped a four race winning streak for Ford dating back to IRP.
Heim, by starting 33rd, became the driver with the lowest starting position to win a Truck Series event since Bobby Hamilton won the season-opening race at Daytona in 2005 from the 36th and final starting spot.
“Just a deep sigh of relief. I mean, we were just the best truck all night. Huge thank you to my TRICON Garage guys,” Heim said in his post-race interview. “This is my favorite track, I love coming here. I look forward to this, I had a smile on my face all week coming to this place. Just glad I could sweep the year here.”
Layne Riggs finished second behind Heim, coming one spot short of sweeping the Round of 10 as a non-playoff driver. The finish is the fifth straight top five for the rookie and seventh on the season.
Regular season champion Christian Eckes finished where he started in third and led 19 laps in the race. Kaden Honeycutt finished fourth, tying his best career finish, which he also achieved at the spring race at Kansas.
Rounding out the top five was rookie Dawson Sutton. Sutton, in his first race in the No. 25 entry for Rackley W.A.R following the announcement of him replacing Ty Dillon, also qualified fifth and earned his first top five in just his third career start.
Tanner Gray, the winner of the ARCA Menards Series event that preceded the Truck Series race, Rajah Caruth, Bayley Currey, Grant Enfinger, and Connor Mosack completed the top ten. The eighth place finish for Currey was his first top ten of the season.
With Kansas being the cutoff race for the Round of 10, two drivers’ playoff hopes ended at the checkered flag; defending champion Ben Rhodes and Daniel Dye. Rhodes ran out of fuel on the final lap in an attempt to gain enough positions on Grant Enfinger to knock the No. 9 out and finished 22nd, while Dye hit the wall very early in the race and lost multiple laps, and he was never able to recover and finished 27th.
RELATED: Kubota Tractor 200 at Kansas Results
Ty Majeski and Connor Mosack led the field to the green flag to begin the race, but Christian Eckes quickly worked his way up from third to take the race lead. A few playoff drives had rough starts to their races, with Rajah Caruth hitting the outside wall out of turn two on the second lap and Daniel Dye hitting the wall out of turn four on lap three. Taylor Gray, another playoff contender, had a run-in with Dawson Sutton and Layne Riggs on lap eight, with all three trucks suffering very minor damage.
A lap later, Majeski took the lead back from Eckes and pulled away from the rest of the field. Corey Heim, who had to start at the rear due to contact with the wall in practice, made his way into the top 10 by lap 15. At same time, Daniel Dye came down pit road for an unscheduled pit stop to replace a flat tire resulting from his wall contact earlier in the run. Dye would lose three laps from the pit stops, severely impacting his chances of advancing.
Majeski led the rest of stage one en route to the stage victory, while Heim continued his charge through the field and ended the stage in third place. Majeski also clinched a spot in the Round of 8 with the points he accrued from the stage win.
Eckes and Heim led the field back to green to begin stage two, with the two playoff drivers quickly pulling away from the rest of the field. Not long after, Heim passed Eckes for the lead, completing his ascent through the field on lap 45. Layne Riggs, the winner of the last two Truck Series events, was able to pass Eckes for second, but Heim maintained the lead and took home the victory in stage two.
Stage three began with Heim and Riggs at the front, but Eckes wasted no time passing Riggs back for second to try and challenge Heim. Not long after, the first caution for an on-track incident occurred on lap 77 for an accident involving Matt Mills and Corey Day. Mills made a three wide move on the backstretch beneath Day and Taylor Gray when his truck suddenly veered to the right, hitting Day in the left rear and sending the No. 91 hard into the outside wall. Both drivers suffered race-ending damage from the accident, which left Day with his first career DNF.
VIDEO: Corey Day and Matt Mills Crash Out of Truck Series Race at Kansas
The race went back to green on lap 84, with Heim taking control and maintaining the race lead. Riggs and Eckes continued their swapping of second place, with the No. 38 taking the position back shortly after the restart.
Green flag pit stops began shortly after lap 100, with drivers making their final stops of the event. During the sequence, Matt Crafton received a pass-through penalty but committed a commitment line violation while serving it, leading to a second pass-through penalty.
Multiple drivers, including Majeski and Ben Rhodes, attempted to stretch their fuel to the end of the race. Rhodes’ decision to do so was out of necessity, as he needed to finish 13 spots ahead of Grant Enfinger to advance.
With five laps to go, Lawless Alan cut a tire and hit the wall but he was able to bring his No. 33 Ford to pit road and the race stayed green.
Majeski and Rhodes both ran out of fuel coming to the white flag, handing the lead back to Heim. The No. 11 was able to hold off Riggs to win his sixth race of the season.
Heim, Eckes, Majeski, Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Grant Enfinger, Nick Sanchez, and Tyler Ankrum advanced to the Round of 8. After bonus points were applied, Caruth, Enfinger, Ankrum and Gray will enter the round below the cut line.
The next Craftsman Truck Series event is scheduled for Saturday, October 4, at Talladega Superspeedway, and will be broadcast by FS1.
