Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Corey Heim led the way Friday afternoon in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro secured his sixth pole position of the season with a 28.946-second (131.583 mph) lap time around the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Starting Lineup: Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire
Heim, who is attempting to tie the all-time single-season win record in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which is nine, set by Greg Biffle in 1999, knows the pole position at a place like New Hampshire Motor Speedway is ultra-important. However, Heim is slightly worried about his truck’s speed on the long run.
“Yeah, I really thought our fire-off speed was our strong suit, so I felt pretty good about qualifying. It was mostly the kind of consistent race runs that we were doing that I could have felt better about, and I still kind of have that same mindset,” Heim explained. “But being on the pole here, as most drivers know, is a pretty big deal just with how hard it is to pass. I got behind a couple of guys in practice, and it was really tough to get by them.”
Seemingly, Heim is having a hard time dialing his No. 11 Toyota in for Saturday’s race, which is mostly due to the fact that Saturday’s Team EJP 175 will mark the first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the facility since the 2017 season. He is learning the track on the fly.
“I feel like part of the problem is I really don’t know. I don’t really have a lot of laps here,” Heim said. “I think our truck is really good, our Tundra is really good, but me personally just trying to acclimate and settle in, I felt like I kind of found something there in the middle of practice, and then it sort of went away as we went. So, now I’m a little lost as far as where to kind of consistently make the most speed.”
While Heim is suffering from a lack of experience at ‘The Magic Mile’, the same could be said for the majority of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series field.
Chandler Smith, who comes into this race as the final driver in the 10-man Playoff Grid and is 24 points below the cutline, will attempt to score a Round of 8 berth-securing win from the runner-up starting spot.
Heim and Smith were followed in the running order by fellow Playoff contenders Ty Majeski, Layne Riggs, who won last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, and is making his 50th career start on Saturday.
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Tanner Gray, Matt Crafton, Brent Crews, Corey LaJoie, Jake Garcia, and Tyler Ankrum rounded out the top-10 starters for Saturday’s Team EJP 175 at New Hampshire.
