Corey Heim: Driver, No. 51 JBL® Toyota
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overview:
Event: Rackley Roofing 200, Race 14 of 23, 150 Laps – 45/50/55; 199.5 Miles
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.33-mile D-shaped oval)
Date/Broadcast: June 24, 2022, at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
The Story on Corey:
After sharing the seat of the No. 51 Tundra TRD Pro with Kyle Busch and Buddy Kofoid to start the 2022 season, Corey Heim takes over the driving duties for the remainder of the season starting Friday at Nashville Superspeedway. Despite being behind the wheel for just six of the first 13 events of the season, the talented teenager has managed to produce two wins, including one in his last outing at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Ill. The Georgia native picked up his first career Truck Series victory in just his fifth start earlier this season at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
The Gateway win netted Heim and extra $50,000 as it was the first race of the Triple Truck Challenge. If he is able to get to victory lane on Friday night in the second race of the Triple Truck Challenge, the bonus will increase to $150,000 and would put him in line to race for the $500,000 bonus awarded to the driver who wins all three events. The next Triple Truck Challenge race will be July 9 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
With two victories across his first nine Truck Series starts, the 19-year-old driver is one of just 12 drivers in series history to net multiple victories in their first 10 starts. Kasey Kahne and Mike Skinner each produced five victories, Mark Martin collected four wins, Ron Hornaday Jr., Ted Musgrave and William Byron brought home three checkered flags and Heim, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Rich Bickle, Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart all delivered two wins.
Across nine career Truck Series starts, Heim has tallied 63 laps led and an average finish of 16.6. He has led at least one lap in four of his six starts this season and qualified inside the top five for each of his last four starts, including front row starting spots for his last three events.
Heim is competing for the 2022 Truck Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year award. Despite only having competed in six of the 13 events so far this season, he sits third in the standings, 15 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. Across 40 career ARCA Menards Series starts he has produced 659 laps led, 29 top-five and 38 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 returned to KBM for his second season atop the pit box of the No. 51 team. Lindley has led his team to six wins since coming to KBM at the start of the 2021 season, including two with Heim and one with Kyle Busch this year. In 2021, his drivers produced three victories, two with 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. Lindley’s lone race at Nashville resulted in a 24th-place finish with Drew Dollar last year.
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 11 races this season including Friday’s race at Nashville. 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:
Corey Heim | Nashville Superspeedway Preview
How does it feel to know that you’re the only one driving the No. 51 Tundra TRD Pro the rest of the year?
“It feels great! Throughout the year getting in and out of my Tundra TRD Pro it was definitely tough to see other drivers get in it. To see the success the team has had even with drivers in and out of it every week is pretty special and Mardy Lindley (crew chief) and the whole group has been working really hard. To have it now for the rest of the year is pretty special.”
How much extra incentive do you have to win this week with a bigger bonus if you can win the first two events of the Triple Truck Challenge?
“It definitely gives me a lot of incentive to go out and win. I have enough to go out and win, just to be successful and go out and win every race but that extra money is definitely cool and to have your name on the Triple Truck Challenge and winning two of three and hopefully three of the three is super special for me. I’m really confident — Nashville is a place where not a lot of people have a lot of experience there, so I feel like that kind of helps me out in the fact that I can kind of go there and be as confused as everyone else is in practice and kind of get the hang of it.”
As you prepare for your first start at Nashville, what kind characteristics do you expect the track to have?
“It’s a lot different than I expected. I’ve been doing a lot of sim work with the TRD guys the past couple of weeks and Nashville is very flat, it’s completely concrete – obviously – not a lot of grip, not a lot of load, so we are going to be sliding around. It will be interesting to see if they but PJ1 or resin down to help the racing a little bit. Overall, we are going to be sliding around out there and it should be fun.”
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 nine career starts has two wins, 63 laps led, two top-five and three top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 16.6.
- 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 40 career ARCA Menards Series starts has eight wins, 659 laps led, 29 top-five and 38 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 4.4. 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-59: The No. 51 JBL team will unload KBM-59 for Saturday’s 150-lap event at Nashville. It is the same Tundra TRD Pro that Heim won with at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in his last start.
Click here to see KBM-59 Performance Profile
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected two wins, two poles, 319 laps led, two top-five and four top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.0 across eight starts at Nashville.
- Owner-driver Kyle Busch picked up the organization’s first ever victory at the 1.33-mile oval in 2010 and won again in 2011.
- KBM holds the Camping World Truck Series records for most career wins (95) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). With his victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway 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 40 victories, the No. 51 is the winningest number in KBM’s Truck Series fleet.
