The end result of Corey Heim’s first NASCAR Cup Series start of the 2025 season was an impressive 13th-place finish. The driver of 23XI Racing’s “Open” entry No. 67 Robinhood Toyota Camry XSE left Kansas Speedway with the best finish of the four 23XI Racing cars in the field in Sunday’s AdventHealth 400, which was won by Kyle Larson.
RESULTS: NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Heim on his path to his career-best NASCAR Cup Series finish.
Heading into his first NASCAR Cup Series start of the season, Heim was optimistic as he regards Kansas Speedway as his favorite race track.
“I’m definitely really excited. [Kansas Speedway] is actually my favorite track, so to be back here is awesome,” Heim stated in a media availability on Saturday at Kansas Speedway.
Firing off the starting grid from the 28th starting spot, the race didn’t actually get off to an amazing start for the 22-year-old racer. Heim, a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, would struggle to stay in the throttle on the exit of the turns as his car was “Really, really, really tight” and would drop outside of the top 30 by Lap 3.
At the point of the first caution of the race on Lap 6, Heim had dropped to 34th with his ill-handling race car.
Heim would overshoot his pit stall on his first pit stop, a green-flag pit stop on Lap 43. The lost time from backing up would result in Heim losing a lap to leader Kyle Larson when the green flag pit sequence cycled out.
The racer says the issues in the opening Stage of the race were the direct result of not competing in a NASCAR Cup Series event since Nashville Superspeedway last June.
“Obviously, I had some issues in Stage 1, but that’s really just me kind of breaking it back in,” Heim explained after the race. “I haven’t run one of these in a race form since June. It took me a while to acclimate.”
The driver of the No. 67 machine would remain a lap down for the next 151 laps. But as crew chief Bootie Barker continued to improve the handling on Heim’s car, and Heim became more and more comfortable in the Next Gen car, the driver continued to climb up the rankings and was up to the top 25 with under 100 laps to go.
“But once we made an adjustment, and I kind of settled in, I feel like we were so good,” Heim said.
Suddenly, an opportunity presented itself when Brad Keselowski suffered a cut tire from the second position and crashed to bring out the caution on Lap 194.
Barker instructed Heim to remain on track under the caution, and they would take the wave around to finally return to the lead lap. While a subsequent caution on the following restart at Lap 201 wasn’t what Cody Ware, Daniel Suarez, and Ty Dillon wanted, as they all crashed in Turn 2, it was exactly what Heim and Barker needed for their wave-around call to fully pay off.
“Good call, Bootie,” Heim would tell his crew chief on the radio as the caution came back out.
The caution allowed Heim to get back to pit road for fresh tires and some adjustments.
Heim would find himself in the 21st position on the ensuing restart, and over the final 60 laps of the race, he would get a chance to show what he had underneath him.
After breaking inside the top 20 with 54 laps to go, one final caution, which Heim was actually involved in during a five-wide battle, allowed Heim the opportunity to head down pit road, which allowed him to have fresher tires than most of the front runners over the final 50 laps of the race.
Those tires showed their worth down the stretch as Heim climbed into the top 15 with 13 laps to go with a pass on Zane Smith.
With 10 laps to go, he’d work his way around Tyler Reddick, his 23XI Racing teammate, for the 14th position, and with eight laps remaining, he’d knife to the inside of Carson Hocevar in Turns 1 and 2 to take over the 13th position.
Heim would engage in a late-race battle with Todd Gilliland, who worked past him for 13th with four laps to go. Heim would close out the final laps strong and would collect the 13th-place finish after he scooted by Chase Elliott for the 13th position with two laps remaining.
Heim’s 13th-place run is his career-best NASCAR Cup Series finish through his first four starts.
“I feel like if I had more experience, I could actually race inside the top 10 at some point,” Heim said in a post-race interview on pit road. “Regardless, just so proud of everyone here at 23XI Racing, Toyota, Mobil 1, Robinhood, and everyone for coming on board. Obviously, learned a lot and kept climbing forward through the day, and ended up with a good day there.”
And the finish could’ve likely been even better had Heim not developed a severe vibration inside the car over the last few laps of the race.
“Yeah, just kind of lost it those last 15 laps. I was shaking my damn brains out,” Heim radioed to his team on the cool-down lap. “I don’t know if it was brake shake or it felt like it was really bad on the straightaway too, so that wouldn’t really make sense. But I could barely see the last 20 [laps].”
Heim, who impressed on Sunday, has two more scheduled starts coming up in the NASCAR Cup Series with 23XI Racing. Heim is set to return to the driver’s seat at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 1, and again at the Chicago Street Course on Sunday, June 6.
