If there was any doubt as to whether or not Corey Heim is the real deal, even after the part-time 23XI Racing driver scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Naval Base Coronado, the doubts were laid to rest in Sunday’s Brickyard 400, as Heim rose to the occasion once again and took his second career win in just his 15th career start.
Race Results: 2026 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis
In the closing laps, Heim had to hold off a hard-charging Christopher Bell for the win, and as his No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota began to pick up a loose handling condition in the closing laps, it was all Heim could do to bring the car back to victory lane.
“Yeah, that was a damn handful,” Heim admitted. “I was hanging on for dear life once the shade went down and the pace picked up. My car got really loose. And I had never really been in a lot of clean air throughout the day, so that was the hardest I’ve ever fought in my life to just make sure I focused on exits and kept them in dirty air.
“I’m pretty out of breath. That was a workout. It was a dream come true. Winning at the Brickyard. That’s unbelievable. Thank you so much, fans, for coming out here.”
According to Joseph Srigley, Heim becomes the first driver since the legendary A.J. Foyt to win twice in their opening 15 Cup Series starts. Foyt accomplished the feat in 1965.
61 years later, Heim, who is set for promotion to full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition in 2027, has pulled it off as well.
In order to be in position to chase his second career win, Heim had to pull off a masterful pass of Denny Hamlin on a restart with 35 laps to go. Heim was able to gain the advantage on Hamlin, and then shut the door on his team owner heading into Turn 1 to cement his status as the leader of the race.
“Yeah, just had to be aggressive,” Heim said of the move he pulled on Hamlin. “It’s for the win. I would have to see it back to see if I did anything wrong. I think we both know we’re racing for the win. He has every right to be a little bit frustrated with me. He probably would have done the same thing. Had to be on top of it. Got a good push on the 22 to be in position, so thanks to him. Man, it’s crazy. Two for 15.”
Bell, who closed to within 0.287 seconds of Heim as he crossed the yard of bricks for the final time, recorded his sixth runner-up finish of the season. However, Bell, who has been visibly frustrated through other close calls this season, was proud of his effort on Sunday at Indianapolis.
“This is a good second place. We’ve had a lot of bad second-place finishes. This one was a good one,” Bell smiled. “We were buried after qualifying. Adam did great job with strategy to get us up there. Whenever we had the restart on the second row, I was really happy with our position. Yeah, just proud of Adam, proud of this team. We pulled together a really good day. We’ve run second a lot. There’s been bad seconds, but this one is a pretty good one.”
Joey Logano carried the momentum from his first win of the season last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway with a solid third-place effort in the Brickyard 400. And he was followed by Chase Briscoe, an Indiana native, who has always dreamt of winning on the 2.5-mile rectangular oval.
Hamlin faded to a fifth-place finish after losing momentum in the battle for the lead with Heim on the final restart of the race. However, Hamlin held no hard feelings toward Heim after climbing from his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on a hard-fought afternoon.
“Yeah, everyone is trying to fight to win the race. When you’re clear by an inch, you’re going to take that inch,” Hamlin said. “It’s really more on us, and [Bell] and [Briscoe] of just not orchestrating good pushes there. We came detached at the wrong time.
“I thought the 20 obviously was on board with getting us the push. It was way too early before the restart zone. I can’t go till we get to the restart zone. He said that Briscoe was on him way, way early or laying back, one of the two. Yeah, that’s how you lose ’em. These restarts, when everyone kind of knows when you’re going to go, it’s about the pushes.”
Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Carson Hocevar, and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top-10 finishers in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
With a 12th-place finish on Sunday, Ty Gibbs was able to secure his berth into the NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship, as he joined Hamlin, Reddick, and Ryan Blaney as drivers who are locked into the championship fight with four races remaining until the Chase.
Austin Cindric gained some much-needed breathing room with a 14th-place finish on Sunday, as he now sits 38 points ahead of Ryan Preece, the first driver on the outside looking in of the championship fight.
Todd Gilliland took home a 24th-place finish, which wouldn’t usually be a noteworthy achievement, but on this afternoon, it was good enough to secure the Front Row Motorsports driver a $1 million payday. Gilliland defeated Ryan Blaney, who finished 26th, in the final round of the NASCAR/TNT Sports In-Season Challenge.
Blaney had been running ahead of Gilliland virtually all race long, but was swept up in a crash on Lap 120. From there, Blaney attempted to chase down Gilliland for the prize money, but came up just short.
“It was a tough day for us, to be honest with you, the team as a whole,” Gilliland explained in his post-race press conference. “Yeah, I thought that was kind of our whole MO through this whole thing, we were barely scraping by, even today, right? It took a bit of bad luck clearly from the 12. My heart was pounding those last 25 laps. It was me, the 16 and the 12. Yeah, still seemed like one slipup and I was going to be right in front of the 12 or right behind him even coming down to the very end.”
Gilliland continued, “I still feel like we kind of earned it coming down the stretch. Yeah, I think I kind of talked about it before, but the biggest thing for me that was really cool through this whole process was seeing how my team really elevated themselves, really grabbed another gear. They worked super, super hard, long hours for this week, just really ramped up throughout this whole in-season challenge. I think it’s cool. They unlocked another level within themselves.”
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway on Sunday, August 9. That race will be televised on USA Network with coverage set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET.
