Corey Heim just continues to be the man to beat in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. On Friday afternoon, the driver of the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro picked up his fifth pole position of the 2025 season.
Pre-Race Resources
NCTS eero 250: Starting Lineup | Practice Results
Heim’s 12th career pole came on the strength of a 23.095-second (116.908 mph) lap time around the 0.750-mile Richmond Raceway. Heim topped Ty Majeski, the defending Richmond winner and defending series champion, by 0.082 seconds for his latest pole position.
While Heim has not had the most stellar performance at Richmond Raceway over his tenure in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the 23-year-old says he has put a ton of prep-work into getting better at the flat short track in Virginia.
“Yeah, definitely. It hasn’t been my best track in the past. But with all of the Cup-side preparation at 23XI [Racing] and those guys, and Blake and Trevor on my daily prep in the Truck Series as well, you know, put a lot of work into this place,” Heim said after securing the pole position. “Like I mentioned, it hasn’t been my friend in the past, but so far so good.”
In three career starts at Richmond, Heim has a best finish of only fifth, which by his lofty standards is subpar. He’ll look to snag a win on Friday night.
While he didn’t secure the pole position, Wisconsin native Majeski isn’t sweating it. He won this race from the runner-up starting spot a season ago, and he feels the track will be quite a bit different on Friday night compared to how conditions were in the heat of the day during qualifying.
“Just trying to get the right feel in the truck. We’ve had success over the last three years here, so, yeah, just trying to replicate that. And kind of understand how the track transitions from day to night,” Majeski said. “Obviously, it’s super hot out. Lap times seem to be a good three or four tenths (of a second) slower than normal here. I think we’ll have a little different track conditions tonight.”
Layne Riggs will start from the inside of Row 2, as he secured the third starting spot, and he’ll be joined by Grant Enfinger, who qualified fourth.
Sammy Smith, Chandler Smith, Matt Crafton, Jake Garcia, Christian Eckes, and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Friday night’s race.
The event will serve as the final race of the NASCAR Truck Series regular-season, and the battle within the race to keep an eye on will be for the final transfer position in the Playoff cutline. Heading into the race, Jake Garcia holds an 11-point advantage over his ThorSport Racing teammate Ben Rhodes, a two-time NASCAR Truck Series champion, for the final Playoff spot. Rhodes will have to either out-point Garcia or win the race outright to lock into the Playoffs.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series eero 250 at Richmond Raceway is set for Friday night, August 15. FS1 will carry the television broadcast of the race with coverage set to kick off at 7:30 PM ET.
