Darlington, S.C. — The fact that Corey Heim isn’t racing full-time in any of NASCAR’s National Series divisions in 2026 feels like a crime. On Friday night, at Darlington Raceway, Heim showed why you can never count him out as he made a thrilling last-lap pass on Ross Chastain, a full-time NASCAR Cup Series contender, for the race win in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Buckle Up South Carolina 200.
After he scored the win, Heim admitted that he was in disbelief about rallying to victory.
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“I didn’t think we had a shot, but I figured if they maybe tangled up front, we had a chance. But they didn’t, and we still got it done,” Heim explained. “So, pretty crazy. Just really glad we put on a show for everybody today. I love coming to this place. It’s a big-time challenge for everybody.”
Heim and the No. 5 TRICON Garage team were able to utilize a late-race pit call to give the driver slightly fresher tires, which gave him a speed advantage in the closing laps. In the end, the tire advantage, and Heim’s never-say-die attitude, paid off with yet another victory.
After he sliced and diced his way from around 10th position to second going into the final set of turns, Heim admits he was expecting Chastain to make more of a move to stall his run out.
“Pretty crazy final restart, there. I definitely thought [Chastain] would have run really shallow into [Turn] 3, and either try to air-block me or you know just take my groove away in general and try to block me,” Heim said in his post-race press conference. “Because if he went low, and I was high, he could have just kind of fenced me. That’s what I would have done. I don’t know, but I guess that’s heat of the moment. But he was clear by seven [truck lengths], and probably didn’t know I was on tires.”
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With the win, Heim claimed the $50,000 Triple Truck Challenge payday, which is given to the highest finishing driver, who is eligible to earn NASCAR Truck Series points in the three-race program. The final two Triple Truck Challenge races will be contested at Rockingham Speedway (April 3) and Bristol Motor Speedway (April 10).
Heim, 23, has now amassed 24 victories in the NASCAR Truck Series in 91 career starts.
Chastain, who has made a lot of unpredictable moves throughout his racing career, was admittedly surprised in the final turn when Heim worked his way past him, as he had no clue that Heim had fresher tires.
“Yeah, coming to the checkers, [my spotter] McReynolds said, [Heim] is there or something, he’s fast. I was like, yeah, that’s fine. And he just drove by me, I had no idea,” Chastain chuckled. “So, I think that’s on us as a whole that we didn’t catch that. And of course, I would have run the bottom if I thought he was even going to be close, but I just thought he had a good restart.”
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Christian Eckes, who scored the Stage 1 win earlier in the race, would go on to record a third-place finish, while Kaden Honeycutt, who picked up his first career pole position earlier in the day, led a race-high 59 laps but picked up damage late and was unable to muster better than a fourth-place result. Honeycutt pocketed an additional 10 championship points with the Stage 2 win on Friday night.
Honeycutt was obviously anguished by not winning despite having what he felt was the best truck in the field, but he was stuck in a bad spot on a late-race restart in the unpreferred outside line.
“The last restart, just the top lane wasn’t preferred. It was like that all night, obviously, just the bottom was really good. I tried not to spin [my tires] as much as I possibly could, but it was just too good on the bottom,” Honeycutt explained. “By the time [Heim] got by me, and [Eckes] was in front of him, I pretty much committed to helping him and see if he could go up there and try to win the race. I don’t know how in the world he did, but he did.”
Connor Mosack, who ran an under-the-radar race, came home with a solid fifth-place finish behind the wheel of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado.
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Christopher Bell, Grant Enfinger, Gio Ruggiero, Daniel Hemric, and William Sawalich rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
Carson Hocevar, another full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver, looked like he had a great chance of winning Friday night’s race; however, in the closing laps, Hocevar had an issue that caused his car to bottom out. After a few laps of trying to hold the lead with his ill-handling truck, Hocevar finally went spinning, which sent the race into overtime.
Hocevar would finish disappointed with a 22nd-place finish.
Despite a 17th-place finish, Chandler Smith exits Darlington Raceway with his series point lead intact. Smith holds a 33-point advantage over Honeycutt, while Smith’s teammate, Layne Riggs, sits third, 41 points back after a 12th-place finish.
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Justin Haley is the last driver inside the 10-driver Chase grid. Haley finished 15th on Friday night.
Rookie of the Year contender, Brenden Queen is the first driver outside the cutline, and is six points behind Haley. Tyler Ankrum is seven points back in 12th, as is Stewart Friesen in 13th.
Next up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway on Friday, April 3. That race will be televised on FS1 with television coverage set to begin at 4:30 PM ET. The NASCAR Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.
Buckle Up South Carolina 200 Race Results
1. 5-Corey Heim
2. 45-Ross Chastain (i)
3. 91-Christian Eckes (S1)
4. 11-Kaden Honeycutt (S2)
5. 7-Connor Mosack
6. 62-Christopher Bell (i)
7. 9-Grant Enfinger
8. 17-Gio Ruggiero
9. 19-Daniel Hemric
10. 1-William Sawalich (i)
11. 10-A.J. Allmendinger (i)
12. 34-Layne Riggs
13. 15-Tanner Gray
14. 56-Timmy Hill
15. 16-Justin Haley
16. 42-Conner Jones
17. 38-Chandler Smith
18. 33-Frankie Muniz
19. 26-Dawson Sutton
20. 12-Brenden Queen #
21. 25-Corey LaJoie (i)
22. 77-Carson Hocevar (x) (i)
23. 98-Jake Garcia
24. 18-Tyler Ankrum
25. 52-Stewart Friesen
26. 90-Justin Carroll
27. 93-Caleb Costner
28. 13-Cole Butcher #
29. 2-Clayton Green
30. 76-Spencer Boyd
31. 88-Ty Majeski
32. 44-Andres Perez de Lara
33. 81-Kris Wright
34. 14-Mini Tyrrell #
35. 22-Josh Reaume
36. 99-Ben Rhodes
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(S1) Stage 1 winner
(S2) Stage 2 winner
(x) Xfinity Fastest Lap
# Rookie of the Year contender
(i) driver ineligible to score series points
Time of Race: 2 hours, 12 minutes, 39 seconds
Average Speed: 97.005 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.145 seconds
Cautions: 9 for 47 laps
Lead Changes: 14 among 8 drivers
This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Corey Heim Shocks Chastain, Steals Truck Series Win At Darlington.
