HEIM RUNNER-UP IN TEXAS
Three TRICON Tundras in the top-eight finishers
FORT WORTH (April 12, 2024) – Corey Heim battled race winner Kyle Busch late before finishing second in the NASCAR Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday evening. Heim continued his impressive streak of top-10s – with seven straight to start the year and 22 in his last 23 Truck Series starts.
Taylor Gray added to his streak with his sixth straight top-10 after a seventh-place finish, while his brother, Tanner Gray, battled back from a practice crash and a 34th-place starting position to finish a season-best eighth. With the run, Tanner Gray joined Heim and Taylor Gray in the provisional Playoff field with 10 races remaining in the regular season.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Texas Motor Speedway
Race 7 of 23 – 200 Laps, 105.2 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Busch*
2nd, COREY HEIM
3rd, Nick Sanchez*
4th, Christian Eckes*
5th, Zane Smith*
7th, TAYLOR GRAY
8th, TANNER GRAY
13th, STEWART FRIESEN
16th, DEAN THOMPSON
21st, TIMMY HILL
30th, KRIS WRIGHT
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
COREY HEIM, No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 2nd
What would have it taken for you to get by him?
“Just more experience I think. He does such a great job aero blocking. I had a couple runs, here and there. It was pretty single lane tonight. You could make a run in the second groove on older tires, but with all of the throttle time we had – wide open – it was hard to make a lane change and gain momentum. Track position was the biggest thing, but he did a great job too. You can’t take anything away from him – he’s one of the greatest of all time. Just huge thank you to TRICON Garage, Toyota Racing, Safelite for all they do. We were solid tonight. I think we were probably a fifth-place truck. I admittedly struggle here a lot, so to finish second is pretty good. I will take it. Obviously, you want to win, but not a bad day for us.”
Can you tell me about that three-wide move there on the next-to-last restart?
“Just going for it. I knew track position was going to be it with it being single groove, sometimes double groove on the restarts. Being in front of Kyle (Busch) was going to be the main thing. I did everything I could. I was a little overagressive in the beginning and knocked a hole in the nose, so probably just need to pick my battles better, I guess.”
What more could you have done to catch Kyle Busch?
“It just seemed like a big track position game at the end there. Of course, you can get really big runs down the straightaways, but once you got to the corners it is really hard to stay behind somebody and keep momentum. I just was doing all I could there – trying to take him three-wide on the next-to-last restart and then got the caution. I was just trying to build a run on him, but he is just too good. He does a really good job. I’m really happy with our run tonight in our Safelite Tundra. We got stage points and finished second. I feel like we were probably a fifth-place truck, and I admittedly struggle here a little bit at this race track, so to finish second here is a good day for us and we will build on it to get better.”
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 7th
You continued your top-10 streak with another top-10 finish. Can you talk about your race?
“I can’t thank all of my TRICON guys enough. They gave me a really good JBL Tundra TRD Pro. The cautions at the end – we didn’t need those. It was just another cycle on the tires. It got us continously tighter and we ended up bleeding spots on that last restart. Good points day. We move on and go to Kansas.”
TANNER GRAY, No. 15 Operation 300 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 8th
If we would have told you a few hours ago that you would finish eighth tonight, what would you have said to that?
“Honestly, before the race started, I felt really good about our chances. I knew that we would have a fast Tundra. We’ve raced this truck before and ran well with it. I would have honestly felt confident. Wrecking in practice is a terrible way to start the day – just caused these guys a lot of extra work, but once we got into the race, we were awful. I don’t know – we have something wrong in the front. We struggled with the handling. It was extremely bad – pretty much the entire race. Jerame (Donley, crew chief) did a good job throwing a hail mary there and catching the caution at the right time. We got ourselves some track position and then we just came in and tightened up a ton and took a swing at it and was able to manufacture a finish. Really proud of everyone from TRICON – it’s nice to come out of here with a good finish, but I’m still frustrated at myself for putting us in a hole in practice. I feel like if I hadn’t done that, we might be in better shape yet, but definitely needed a good finish. Nice to manufacture one when you have a start like that, but proud of everyone from TRICON, can’t thank everyone at Toyota, Operation 300 and Dead On Tools enough for the support.”
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