Corey Heim: Driver, No. 51 JBL® Toyota
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview:
Event: SpeedyCash.com 220, Race 9 of 23, 147 Laps –35/35/77; 220.5 Miles
Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (1.5-mile quad-oval)
Date/Broadcast: May 20, 2022, at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
The Story on Corey:
Corey Heim returns to the No. 51 JBL Tundra TRD Pro for this week’s SpeedyCash.com 220 at Texas Motor Speedway. Friday’s 147-lap event will be the 19-year-old driver’s fifth Truck Series start of 2022 and the eighth of his career. Despite having just seven starts under his belt, the talented teenager already collected his first series win earlier this year at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway. Overall, in seven starts, he has tallied 42 laps led and an average finish of 20.1. Last week at Kansas, Heim led 23 laps and collected his first career Stage Win but was relegated to a 33rd-place finish after making contact with the wall and experiencing subsequent tire issues.
Despite not being slated for a full-time schedule this year, Heim is competing for the 2022 Truck Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year award. Having only competed in four of the eight events this season, he sits fourth in the standings, 30 points behind Lawless Alan. Heim will look to join three other KBM drivers that have won the award, reigning winner Chandler Smith, William Byron (2016) and Erik Jones (2015).
Heim made three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts for KBM in 2021, with a best result of 11th coming at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Heim had an impressive Truck Series debut at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway last May, where he led two laps, finished Stage Two in the runner-up position and was running second when he got turned from behind on a restart with just under 30 laps remaining. The incident forced him to the garage and ended his night with a disappointing 23rd-place finish.
In addition to his part-time Truck Series schedule Heim is competing in a six-race schedule for Venturini Motorsports in the ARCA Menards Series. Heim led 74 of 90 laps en route to the victory at Daytona in February to pick up his eighth career ARCA Menards Series victory. Most recently, Heim led 56 of the first 57 laps last Saturday at Kansas before getting taken out in an accident on a restart and being relegated to a 16th-place finish. Across 39 career ARCA Menards Series starts he has produced 644 laps led, 28 top-five and 37 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 4.4. Heim finished second to Ty Gibbs in the 2021 ARCA Menards Series championship standings.
Mardy Lindley returns to KBM for his second season atop the pit box of the No. 51 team. In addition to this year’s with Heim, the No. 51 team produced three victories in Lindley’s first season as a crew chief at KBM, two with owner-driver Kyle Busch and one with Martin Truex Jr. Before arriving at KBM, Lindley guided his drivers to 32 wins and four ARCA Menards Series East championships since 2013, including back-to-back titles with Sam Mayer the last two seasons. Additionally, he earned the ARCA Menards Series Sioux Chief Showdown championship with Mayer in 2020. Behind the wheel, the second-generation driver won 11 races on the Pro Cup Series from 2000 to 2006 and was crowned the series champion in 2001. In his lone Truck Series race at Texas, he finished 33rd with Drew Dollar last June.
JBL, the authority in engineering superior sound, returns to KBM for an eighth season and will be the primary sponsor on Heim’s Toyota for 10 races this season including Friday’s race at Texas. Crescent Tools, a premier hand tool brand from Apex Tool Group, will serve as a primary sponsor for four of Heim’s races, beginning July 29 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis (Ind.) Raceway Park.
Corey Heim, Driver Q&A:
This will be your first time racing at Texas in any series, how do you prepare for a new track?
“It’s definitely tough, I’ve had to prepare for a new track several times last year and have been to some new tracks again this year. Texas is definitely pretty unique — it got repaved I believe four or five years ago — and it’s definitely a little bit different than your average mile-and-a-half racetrack. KBM has had a lot of success there in the past, so I’m confident they are going to bring me a really good JBL Tundra TRD Pro there.”
Will you lean on your teammates that have raced at Texas before to help speed up your learning curve?
“For sure, John Hunter had a ton off success there last year – he won the truck race I believe and the Xfinity Series race, so I’ll be able to lean on him. Chandler (Smith) has been there a couple times as well and has had a lot of speed and Kyle (Busch) has had a lot of success there in the past. Being a part of this organization at KBM and being able to lean on so many people that have had success at certain race tracks, especially Texas coming this weekend is definitely key.”
Despite not having the result to show for it, can you take some positives out of the speed you showed at Kansas last week?
“For sure, we had so much speed in the first two stages. I felt like we were the best truck in the first two stages on the long run. So, setting up for that last stage of somewhere near 100 laps, I thought it was going to stay green and we were going to have a really good truck on the long run and hopefully take back the lead, but we didn’t have things go our way. This year has been a really up-and-down year as far as how we have been finishing races. Unfortunately, it’s been more on the downside for sure, but this weekend at Texas we are going to have a really fast truck and I’m looking forward to it.”
Corey Heim Career Highlights:
- Picked up first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway March 19, 2022 in just his fifth start. Across six career starts has one win, 24 laps led, one top-five and one top-10 finish resulting in an average finish of 17.8.
- Made three Truck Series starts in 2021 with a best result of 11th coming at Martinsville Speedway in October.
- Finished runner-up in the ARCA Menards Series championship standings in 2021 after collecting six wins, three poles, 406 laps led, 16 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 3.1 across 20 starts.
- Across 38 career ARCA Menards Series starts has eight wins, 588 laps led, 28 top-five and 37 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 4.1. Picked up his first career ARCA Menards Series victory at Kansas Speedway Oct. 16, 2020.
- Corey Heim’s No. 51 JBL Tundra TRD Pro:
- KBM-66: The No. 51 JBL team will unload KBM-66 for Saturday’s 147-lap event at Texas. It is the same Tundra TRD Pro that Heim picked up his first career Truck Series victory earlier this year at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway. KBM owner-driver Kyle Busch also picked up a victory with this Toyota at Atlanta in March of 2021.
Click here to see KBM-66 Performance Profile
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected nine wins, three poles, 1050 laps led, 20 top-five and 35 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 11.0 across 56 starts in the Lone Star State.
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch’s has four Texas wins for his organization (2010, 2014, 2019 & 2020). John Hunter Nemechek (2021), Greg Biffle (2020), Christopher Bell (2017), William Byron (2016) and Erik Jones (2015) all have one victory for KBM at Texas.
- KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (93) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway Corey Heim became the 18th different driver to win a Truck Series event for KBM. In addition to collecting a series-record seven Owner’s Championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers: Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- With 38 victories, the No. 51 is the winningest number in KBM’s Truck Series fleet.
