Even when he doesn’t have the dominant truck in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Corey Heim finds a way. On Friday night, in the eero 250 at Richmond Raceway, Ty Majeski flat-out dominated the race, leading 143 laps on his way to sweeping the wins in Stages 1 and 2, but it was Heim, who found himself in the lead in the closing laps of the race.
Race Results:
Majeski found misfortune on a couple of occasions late in the race, which allowed Heim to take over and pull away for his seventh win of the opening 18 races of the 2025 NASCAR Truck Series season.
“Yeah, I really didn’t feel like we were — I mean, me personally, I wasn’t very good. I was very inconsistent,” Heim said after collecting his latest win. “Obviously, [Ty Majeski] was the best truck. I’m sure he got damaged there, and it slowed him down. But you know, we’ve had some get away on us like that this year, this is one that kind of redeems that a little bit.”
While Heim knew it took some good fortune falling his way, the 23-year-old was able to capture a victory at Richmond Raceway, which has been a thorn in his side throughout his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career.
Speaking of his career, Heim’s win on Friday night marks the 18th victory of his 82-race NASCAR Truck Series career.
While it was elation for Heim, Majeski, who was able to hold on to finish runner-up, suffered from heartbreak.
When a lapped truck laid oil down on the track on Lap 200, Majeski, who was running side-by-side with his ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton, received a shot in the driver’s side door as Crafton slipped in the oil and collided with the No. 98 truck. This contact sent both drivers spinning, and it took control of the race away from Majeski.
TROUBLE FOR THE LEADER. ? Ty Majeski goes around after contact with teammate Matt Crafton. Wow. pic.twitter.com/NsZh0XJD3N
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) August 16, 2025
On the ensuing restart, which was the final one of the race, Majeski took a shot from behind from rookie contender Gio Ruggiero, which crumpled his rear bumper, and he’d take another shot from Corey LaJoie a lap later to create additional rear-end damage on his Ford F-150. Once things would settle down, Majeski would lock in, and claw his way back through the field. But his rally would stall out one spot shy of the race win.
Layne Riggs would cap off another solid evening behind the wheel of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford with a third-place finish, while NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Sammy Smith would finish fourth, and Corey LaJoie would nab a top-five finish in fifth.
Ruggiero would finish sixth ahead of Jake Garcia, Ben Rhodes, Chandler Smith, and Kaden Honeycutt, who rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
By virtue of his seventh-place finish, Garcia was able to secure the final slot in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs by 19 points over his teammate Ben Rhodes.
“I just did my best to run a smart race in the second half. Even in the first half, there were some moments where we were four-wide, and that’s not going to work out at Richmond,” Garcia said after collecting his eighth top-10 finish of the season. “So, there were some points, where I had to bail out and lost a bunch of spots on some of those restarts just being conservative. But our truck was really fast, and I think we could have finished top-five certainly.”
The 10 drivers, who will battle for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, are Heim (2,065 points), Riggs (2,026), Chandler Smith (2,019), Daniel Hemric (2,011), Tyler Ankrum (2,010), Majeski (2,010), Grant Enfinger (2,007), Rajah Caruth (2,005), Kaden Honeycutt (2,003), and Garcia (2,002).
Next up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the Playoff-opening race, the Sober or Slammer 200 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, August 30. That race will be televised by FS1 with coverage set to kick off at 12:00 PM ET.
