Corey Heim rallied from striking out of victories over the previous two races to achieve a dominant NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, May 23.
The 22-year-old Heim from Marietta, Georgia, led six times for a race-high 98 of 134 scheduled laps. He started in third place and bolted his way to the front by leading for the first time on the third lap. Despite losing his early lead to Cup Series regular Ross Chastain, Heim reassumed the top spot midway into the first stage period and won the stage.
He also claimed the second stage victory and dominated a majority of the third stage period before making a scheduled green-flag pit stop within the final 30 laps.
Heim was not to be denied once he reassumed the lead with less than 20 laps remaining. He let the competition know that it was his time to return to Victory Lane, cruising to his fourth victory of the 2025 season. Heim also gained maximum points, adding to his regular-season points lead.
On-track qualifying to determine the starting lineup occurred on Friday. Rookie Giovanni Ruggerio notched his first Truck career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 178.944 mph in 30.177 seconds. Joining Ruggerio on the front row was teammate Tanner Gray with a qualifying lap at 178.719 mph in 30.215 seconds.
Prior to the event, Luke Fenhaus dropped to the rear of the field in a back-up truck. Drivers Ciody Dennison, Mason Maggio, Frankie Muniz and Justin Carroll also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their trucks.
When the green flag waved and the race started, the field fanned out to multiple lanes. Pole-sitter Giovanni Ruggiero launched ahead of teammate Tanner Gray with drafting help from teammate Corey Heim through the first two turns. As Heim used the outside lane, starting from the backstretch through the final set of turns, to overtake Gray for the runner-up spot. He then raced alongside Ruggiero approaching the start/finish line for an early advantage. But Ruggiero managed to lead the first lap.
Both Ruggiero and Heim then dueled for the top spot throughout the second lap. Ruggiero barely led the second lap over a hard-charging Heim. But Heim prevailed from the outside lane through the first two turns. He muscled ahead of Ruggiero’s No. 17 First Auto Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry during the following lap. As Heim proceeded to lead the next lap, Ross Chastain navigated his way into the runner-up spot. Meanwhile, Ruggiero, who briefly had a piece of trash covering his front grille, fell back to third place.
Then on the fourth lap, Chastain used the outside lane to intimidate Heim for the lead by getting alongside his right-rear quarter panel entering the frontstretch. He proceeded to cross over to the inside lane through the backstretch and made his way to the lead, where he led the fifth lap before fending a rematch from Heim. Chastain would proceed to lead through the Lap 10 mark while Heim, Ruggiero, Layne Riggs and Daniel Hemric all gave chase. By then, Tanner Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Kyle Busch and Ty Majeski trailed in the top 10 while Rajah Caruth, Matt Mills, Jake Garcia, rookie Andres Perez de Lara and Brandon Jones were mired in the top 15, respectively.
Then on Lap 15, Heim, who had spent the previous five laps re-gaining ground on Chastain, used a huge run he gained through the backstretch to reassume the lead from Chastain. With Heim back in the lead, he would stretch his advantage to a second by the Lap 20 mark over Chastain while Riggs, Ruggiero and Honeycutt followed suit in the top five.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 30, Heim, who extended his lead to more than two seconds, cruised to his seventh Truck stage victory of the 2025 season. Chastain followed suit in second ahead of Riggs, Honeycutt and Kyle Busch while Ruggiero, Hemric, Chandler Smith, Majeski and Mills were scored in the top 10, respectively.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Heim peeled off the track and pitted their respective entries for the first time. Following the pit stops, Honeycutt managed to edge Heim off of pit road first and they were followed by Riggs, Busch, Ruggiero, Chastain, Majeski, Hemric, Chandler smith and Rajah Caruth, respectively.
The second stage period started on Lap 38 as Honeycutt and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Honeycutt and Heim dueled for the lead in front of Busch, Riggs and two-stacked lanes of competitors through the first two turns. As Honeycutt slightly muscled ahead through the backstretch, he then cleared Heim and moved up in front of him through Turns 3 and 4. In the process of Honeycutt moving in front of Heim, Busch made his move beneath Heim and overtook him for the runner-up spot through the frontstretch.
Then on the following lap, Busch attempted to overtake Honeycutt for the lead through the first two turns. But Heim gave Honeycutt a huge draft that allowed the latter two to rocket away from Busch through the backstretch. Heim then used the outside lane to rocket past Honeycutt’s No. 45 DQS/Foundation For Pops Chevrolet Silverado RST entry and reassume the lead on Lap 40. Heim would proceed to lead by three-tenths of a second over Honeycutt by Lap 45 while Chastain, Busch and riggs pursued ahead of Majeski, Hemric, Smith, Ruggiero and Brandon Jones.
At the Lap 50 mark, Heim extended his advantage to a second over Honeycutt. Busch, who overtook Chastain and reclaimed third place four laps earlier, trailed by nearly two seconds. With Chastain and Riggs settling in the top five, Majeski, Hemric, Ruggiero, Chandler Smith and Jones continued to race in the top 10 ahead of Grant Enfinger, Caruth, Matt Crafton, Tyler Ankrum and Ben Rhodes while Heim stabilized his lead to more than a second over Honeycutt by Lap 55.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 60, Heim had grown his lead to nearly three seconds. He notched his second straight Truck stage victory of the event and the eighth of the 2025 season. Ironically, this marked the third time this year where Heim swept the first two stages of a Truck event. Honeycutt settled in second ahead of Busch, Riggs and Chastain. Hemric.Majeski, Ruggiero, Smith and Enfinger were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Heim returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Honeycutt exited pit road first and ahead of Heim for a second time. Riggs, Chastain, Busch, Ruggiero, Hemric, Majeski, Caruth and Smith followed suit.
With 66 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Honeycutt and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Honeycutt muscled ahead of Heim from the inside lane through the first two turns. Chastain tried to follow suit behind Honeycutt. Honeycutt then moved up the track to stall Heim’s momentum from the outside lane before he went on defense mode through the backstretch.
Chastain and Heim went below Honeycutt amid a tight three-wide battle for the lead through Turns 3 and 4, where Heim managed to lead the following lap ahead of Chastain. As the field behind fanned out to multiple lanes, Busch battled Honeycutt for third place while Heim used the outside lane to muscle ahead of Chastain through Turns 3 and 4 with the lead.
The caution then flew with 64 laps remaining when Ruggerio, who was battling within the top-10 mark, got loose entering the frontstretch and made contact with Chandler Smith. With Smith turned, he collided into Majeski as the latter two were sent spinning through the frontstretch. The incident left both Majeski and Smith with damaged trucks as Connor Mosack and BJ McLeod made contact and wrecked against the outside wall.
The beginning of the next restart with 57 laps remaining featured Heim receiving a push from Busch’s No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Silverado RST entry from the inside lane. He stormed his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro entry ahead of Chastain and the field with the lead through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, Chastain retained second place ahead of Busch who was mired in a tight three-wide battle and racing in front of a stacked field for third place. Meanwhile, Heim led the following lap and retained the top spot despite having a fast-charging Chastain close in to his rear bumper.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Heim was leading by three-tenths of a second over Riggs, his new nemesis from their final-lap run-in last weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Chastain, Busch and Honeycutt followed suit in the top five. Trailing in the top 10 were Hemric, Enfinger, Caruth, Rhodes and Jones, respectively. Mills, Andres Perez de Lara, Ankrum, Garcia and Dawson Sutton were mired in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Heim stretched his late advantage to nearly three seconds over Riggs. Busch, Chastain and Honeycutt continued to pursue in the top five. Meanwhile, Rhodes, who made a pit stop under green to have a right-front tire addressed, was mired back in 26th place, a lap down, after initially being scored in the top 10.
Then with 32 laps remaining, a late cycle of green flag pit stops ensued as Riggs and Honeycutt pitted their respective entries. Heim would then pit along with Busch, Enfinger, Chastain, Garcia, Hemric, Jones and Sutton during the following before more names that included Matt Mills and Ankrum pitted with 30 laps remaining. Amid the pit stops, Caruth, who was among a handful who have yet to pit, assumed the lead and he would continue to lead with 25 laps remaining.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Caruth maintained the lead by 10 seconds over Stewart Friesen. Timmy Hill, Jack Wood and Matt Crafton were also racing in the top five. Meanwhile, Heim was mired in sixth place and trailing the lead by more than 20 seconds.
Caruth would then pit his No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST entry before the following lap, allowing Friesen to cycle into the lead. Friesen pit under green during the next lap and Timmy Hill navigated to a brief lead before Heim reassumed the top spot with 17 laps remaining.
With 15 laps remaining, Heim’s lead stood to five seconds over Hill while third-place Chastain also trailed by five seconds. Behind, Wood, who has yet to pit, was scored in fourth place while Honeycutt was up to fifth place. As the laps dwindled, Heim added another second to his advantage and would lead by with 10 laps remaining. He would then lead by nearly seven seconds with five laps remaining. Behind, Chastain and Honeycutt were racing in second and third while Riggs and Busch were scored in the top five.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Heim remained in the lead by more than six seconds over Chastain. Maintaining a large gap between himself and Chastain, Heim smoothly navigated his way around Charlotte for a final time. He then cruised back to the frontstretch victorious for his fourth checkered flag of the 2025 Truck Series season.
It marked Heim’s 15th career win in the Craftsman Truck Series division and his first win at Charlotte. It was also his first victory since winning three races earlier at Texas Motor Speedway in early May. The win was the fourth of the year for both Toyota and TRICON Garage.
Heim’s first Charlotte victory was also a redemptive moment for the young Georgian racer. He had dominant performances at both Kansas Speedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway the previous two weeks that were spoiled due to circumstantial events, which prevented him from winning both races.
“Honestly, [it’s] just nice to be far enough away where someone can’t clean me out, to be honest with you,” Heim said on the frontstretch on FS1. “[I’m] Just super thankful for TRICON Garage, Toyota, Safelite. This [No. 11 truck] was obviously really good. I felt like we’ve had the speed the last couple years here. Just circumstantially haven’t been able to get it done, so obviously, just such a good truck. [I] Had to execute my part. Pit crew did a great job. [Tonight was] Just a really nice clean day. Pumped up about this one. [I] Felt like we gave a couple away the last two weeks, but [we] redeemed ourselves tonight.”
Chastain, who won the Truck Series event at Charlotte in 2022, settled in second place in his second Truck start of the 2025 season. Despite ending up one spot short of spoiling the Truck Series’ regulars by winning, Chastain was left satisfied with both his result and the strong on-track results generated by Niece Motorsports.
“That’s a heck of an effort for Niece Motorsports across the board for three [trucks] in the top seven, Kaden [Honeycutt] on my back bumper,” Chastain said. “That’s what we look for. We look for competition across all three trucks for [team owner] Al [Niece] and Al’s super happy to get a ton of points and just have fast trucks. [Our truck was] Best in class. [Heim], with Corey and [crew chief] Scott [Zipadelli], they’re the best in the field right now. None of us had anything for him.”
Kaden Honeycutt, led 10 laps while pursuing his first career victory. However, he recorded a career-best third-place finish while Layne Riggs and Kyle Busch finished in the top five.
Grant Enfinger, Matt Mills, Daniel Hemric, Rajah Caruth and Brandon Jones completed the top 10 in the final running order.
There were 14 lead changes for eight different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 20 laps. In addition, 12 of 34 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 11th event of the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series season, Corey Heim leads the regular-season standings by 100 points over Chandler Smith, 110 over Daniel Hemric, 129 over Tyler Ankrum and 140 over Grant Enfinger.
Results:
1. Corey Heim, 98 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
2. Ross Chastain, 11 laps led
3. Kaden Honeycutt, 10 laps led
4. Layne Riggs
5. Kyle Busch
6. Grant Enfinger
7. Matt Mills, one lap led
8. Daniel Hemric
9. Rajah Caruth, 10 laps led
10. Brandon Jones
11. Jake Garcia
12. Tyler Ankrum
13. Stewart Friesen, one lap down, one lap down
14. Parker Kligerman, one lap down
15. BJ McLeod, one lap down
16. Andres Perez de Lara, one lap down
17. Ben Rhodes, one lap down
18. Luke Fenhaus, one lap down
19. Timmy Hill, one lap down, one lap led
20. Matt Crafton, two laps down
21. Giovanni Ruggiero, two laps down, two laps led
22. Stefan Parsons, two laps down
23. Connor Mosack, two laps down
24. Spencer Boyd, two laps down
25. Jack Wood, two laps down
26. Tanner Gray, four laps down
27. Frankie Muniz, eight laps down
28. Mason Maggio, 11 laps down
29. Cody Dennison, 13 laps down
30. Toni Breidinger, 13 laps down
31. Dawson Sutton – OUT, Driveshaft
32. Ty Majeski, 31 laps down
33. Justin Carroll – OUT, Suspension
34. Chandler Smith – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule is Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee, for the Rackley Roofing 200. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, May 30, and air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
