It has been a legendary season for Corey Heim in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and that continued in a major way on Saturday, with the Marietta, Georgia-native scoring a record-breaking victory.
The 23-year-old driver paced the field for 124 of the 175-lap event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, holding off Chandler Smith in the race’s final laps to collect his ninth win of 2025 — matching the single-season record set by Greg Biffle in 1999.
“It’s a dream come true to be able to race with these guys. It seems like everywhere we go this year, we’re either a contender or we win, so I just can’t say enough about those guys,” Corey Heim said post-race. “Going to keep it going, like you said, we’ve got four more races left and want to break that record — shoutout Greg Biffle, he’s a great dude — and I want to be able to kind of compete with that with him.”
With his dominant victory from the pole in Saturday’s event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Heim continues to hold seventh-place on the all-time wins list in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, earning his 20th victory. Heim would need to win two more races to reach Todd Bodine, who sits sixth on the list.
The victory also allows Heim to further extend his already insane cushion on the cutoff heading to the NASCAR Playoffs ‘Round of 8′, which is set to begin with the series’ next event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, and include stops at Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway.
While there was a time in the middle portion of the event where Heim wasn’t pacing the field, as a result of some drivers electing to flip the stage towards the end of Stage 1, the No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD was able to keep himself in the conversation throughout the entirety of the race.
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Andres Perez de Lara was the only other substantial leader throughout the afternoon at New Hampshire, leading the entire second stage for Niece Motorsports after choosing to take his tires earlier than the race leaders. Perez later got involved in an incident and finished 15th.
In the final laps of Saturday’s event, Chandler Smith was the closest driver to Heim on raw pace, but just couldn’t match the speed of the TRICON Garage Toyota, and had to settle for a runner-up finish. Smith, after back-to-back 30th-place finishes, needed to win the race in order to advance in the postseason.
“I feel like it’s a little bittersweet, to be honest with you,” Smith said post-race. “I had a fast truck that was capable of winning. I started hauling butt there at the end and running down the 11, but it wasn’t in the Lord’s Will today, honestly. I pulled everybody together before the race. We prayed together, and I wanted to let them know that I’m proud of them, no matter the outcome today.”
Chandler Smith (Front Row Motorsports) and Jake Garcia (ThorSport Racing) were the two drivers who were eliminated from contention in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs.
Layne Riggs, making his 50th start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at New Hampshire, finished a solid third-place in his Bare Knuckle Boxing Ford F-150 and advanced to the next round in the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs.
Giovanni Ruggiero, Heim’s rookie teammate at TRICON Garage, recorded another top-five finish, finishing in fourth. Ty Majeski, the defending champion of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rounded out the top five.
Grant Enfinger, Kaden Honeycutt, Corey LaJoie, Christian Eckes (driving a fifth truck for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing), and Rajah Caruth rounded out the top-10. Other post-season eligible drivers finishing outside the top-10 were Tyler Ankrum (11th), Daniel Hemric (12th), and Jake Garcia (16th).
Mike Christopher, Jr. had a solid run in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at New Hampshire, bringing home a 13th-place run for the No. 62 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. Other notable runs include top-20s for Mason Massey in the No. 20 for Young’s Motorsports and Blake Lothian in the No. 22 for Reaume Brothers Racing.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will take a weekend off before returning to competition during the first week of October at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. That event will take place on Friday, October 3 at 3:30 PM ET on FS1, NASCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
