Corey Heim made it known to the world that it was his time to win in the NASCAR Cup Series division. He accomplished this feat during the inaugural Anduril 250 at San Diego’s Naval Base Coronado on Sunday, June 21, following a late battle with teammate Tyler Reddick.
The reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion from Marietta, Georgia, led the final three of 75-scheduled laps in an event where he started in 13th place and spent the early portions of the event racing within the mid-pack region. Then, after dodging a multi-car wreck in the first turn that eliminated a trio of front-runners, Heim steered his way into the top-10 mark before he strategically pitted prior to the second stage’s conclusion.
Restarting within the top-12 mark for the final stage period, Heim climbed his way back into the top-10 mark. He then made his presence at the front known with less than 20 laps remaining as he was reeling in Kyle Larson for the lead. Despite pitting with Larson under green but getting beat off of pit road from Larson with 16 laps remaining, the field jumbled up a lap later when the caution flew due to oil coming out of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s entry in the second turn. During the final restart with 12 laps remaining, Heim, who restarted fourth, navigated his way into the runner-up spot a lap later after the restart’s leader, Carson Hocevar, spun.
Heim then spent the next nine laps stalking and reeling in teammate Tyler Reddick for the lead. With three laps remaining, Reddick nearly missed the second turn, and it allowed Heim to get beneath Reddick and duel with him during the third turn. Despite gaining the lead just past the fourth turn, Heim was challenged by Reddick with a crossover move before Reddick made slight contact that sent Heim up the track in the fifth turn. Despite Heim barely scrubbing the wall, he motored ahead with the lead as Reddick lifted. As Reddick dropped out of contention due to a cut tire, Heim maintained the lead over the final three laps before he cycled back for his first-ever checkered flag in the Cup Series division amid a part-time campaign with 23XI Racing.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, June 20, Shane van Gisbergen claimed the pole position with a pole-winning lap at 90.809 mph in 134.788 seconds. Carson Hocevar qualified in second place with a lap of 90.704 mph in 134.944 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names, including points leader Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, and Christopher Bell, dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective Toyota entries.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen motored his No. 97 Red Bull Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead of Carson Hocevar and the field through the first turn. Van Gisbergen then navigated his way through the sharp left-hand turn of the second turn with the top spot as the field of 39 competitors behind fanned out. As the field continued to fan out and jostle for early spots throughout the course’s 16 turns, van Gisbergen was left uncontested at the front. With an early advantage, van Gisbergen led the first lap over Hocevar while Ryan Blaney, Zane Smith, Daniel Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell, Connor Zilisch and Austin Hill were in the top 10, respectively.
During the second lap, Austin Dillon spun in Turn 9 and he plummeted below the leaderboard due to stalling his entry, but he managed to continue without drawing a caution. The following lap, Hocevar overtook van Gisbergen for the lead in Turn 6, but the latter used a bold overtake through Turns 10 and 11 to reassume the lead. Seconds later, Blaney and Preece overtook Hocevar to move into second and third on the track as van Gisbergen led the third lap. Not long after, Blaney assumed the lead for the first time in between Turns 5 and 6. As Blaney proceeded to stretch his advantage to more than two seconds over van Gisbergen by the fifth lap mark, Jimmie Johnson wrecked in the chicane due to locking up his brakes and hitting a tire barrier, but he pitted his damaged No. 84 Carvana Toyota Camry XSE entry without drawing a caution.
Through the ninth lap mark, Blaney stabilized his lead to nearly two seconds over Bubba Wallace, the latter of whom started 12th and assumed the runner-up spot from van Gisbergen two laps earlier. A lap later, Blaney surrendered the lead to pit under green along with Preece, Daniel Suarez, Hocevar, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Gibbs, Connor Zilisch, Cole Custer while Wallace cycled to the lead ahead of van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell and Zane Smith. By then, a bevy of names that included Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Todd Gilliland, Corey Heim, Ty Dillon, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Kevin Magnussen and Noah Gragson pitted under green over the previous two laps.
On the 11th lap and just after both van Gisbergen and Buescher overtook Wallace to move into the top-two spots, the event’s first caution flew due to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. stalling on the course. During the caution period, Christopher Bell was relieved by Brent Crews as Bell continues to recover from a fractured wrist suffered two races ago at Michigan International Speedway while battling towards the front in the closing laps. In addition, Austin Hill, Brad Keselowski, John Hunter Nemechek and Ross Chastain pitted while the rest of the field, led by van Gisbergen, remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 14 featured van Gisbergen and Buescher on the front row, where van Gisbergen rocketed away from the field through the first two turns. As a variety of on-track action and shuffling of positions ensued through the 16-turn course, van Gisbergen led the next lap while Buescher, Blaney, Preece and Bubba Wallace followed suit ahead of Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Todd Gilliland, respectively.
At the Lap 16 mark, Preece attempted to challenge van Gisbergen through the lead amid a side-by-side battle just past the Lap 12 mark. Preece managed to assume a brief lead before van Gisbergen returned the favor and reassumed the lead through Turns 14 and 15 before they ran through the chicane. Not long after, Blaney assumed the lead from van Gisbergen and he proceeded to lead the Lap 17 mark. During the Lap 17 mark, van Gisbergen and Buescher pitted under green along with Wallace, McDowell, Zane Smith, Briscoe, Herbst, Hamlin, Suarez, Nemechek, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones. Meanwhile, Blaney retained the lead by more than two seconds over Larson while Preece, Gibbs and Allmendinger trail in top five.
On Lap 18, the caution returned due to Wallace, who had just pitted but was reporting a loose wheel, losing a right-front wheel in Turn 10. As a result of the loose wheel, Wallace was held on pit road for two laps as a penalty. The caution was enough for the first stage period scheduled to conclude on Lap 20 to officially conclude under caution. As a result, Blaney was awarded his second Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Preece, Larson, Gibbs, Allmendinger, Gilliland, Hocevar, Logano, Zilisch and Byron were scored in the top 10, respectively, as 37 of 39 competitors were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, some led by the leader Blaney and including Larson, Allmendinger, Gilliland, Hocevar, Gibbs, Logano, Byron, Bowman, Reddick, Berry, Custer, Heim, Elliott, Gragson, Ty Dillon, Keselowski and Magnussen pitted while the rest led by Preece remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 22 as Preece and Zilisch occupied the front row. At the start, Preece launched his No. 60 Ralphs/Scott 1000 Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry ahead of Zilisch and the field through the first turn before the latter made a move beneath Preece and assumed the lead through the second turn. As the field fanned out and jostled for spots, Zilisch retained the top spot for a full cycle around the 16-turn course as he led the next lap over Preece while Hill, Chastain, Buescher, van Gisbergen, McDowell, Zane Smith, Herbst and Nemechek trailed in the top 10, respectively.
During the Lap 23 mark, van Gisbergen sent Buescher for a spin in Turn 5. In the process, Buescher ignited a stack-up within the field as he did a full 360 spin in front of van Gisbergen and both managed to continue racing in the top-10 mark without drawing a caution. Amid the on-track action, Zilisch maintained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Preece by the Lap 25 mark while Buescher and van Gisbergen were scored in fifth and sixth behind Hill and Chastain.
On Lap 29, the caution flew due to the No. 20 Craftsman Toyota Camry XSE entry piloted by Crews coming to a stop in Turn 12 as his entry went up in smoke due to a gearbox issue. During this caution period, some led by Preece and including Buescher, Chastain, Briscoe, Blaney, Allmendinger, Gilliland, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Bowman, Ty Dillon, Elliott, Gragson, Magnussen, Keselowski, Erik Jones, Stenhouse, Austin Cindric and Jimmie Johnson pitted while the rest led by Zilisch remained on the track.
The next restart on Lap 31 did not last long when the leaders Hill and Zilisch made contact and slammed into the left-side wall in the first turn as van Gisbergen also piled into the carnage while trailing both in close-quarters racing. The trio then ricocheted back across the track and ignited a multi-car wreck that involved McDowell, Suarez, Blaney, Herbst, Nemechek and Gibbs just past the first turn. Amid the carnage, Herbst, who was hit on the left-side door by the leaders, escaped with the lead ahead of Larson, Suarez, Zane Smith and Logano while Hill, Zilisch and van Gisbergen were knocked out of contention. In addition, Wallace was awarded the free pass for a second time, which placed him back on the lead lap category. The latest carnage placed the event in a red flag period for nearly nine minutes and 33 seconds to have the carnage cleared and the wall repaired.
When the red flag lifted and the event restarted on Lap 33, Herbst maintained a steady lead through the first turn despite nearly getting sideways while Zane Smith assumed the runner-up spot from Larson. Smith then assumed the lead through the third turn while Larson bumped and overtook Herbst for the runner-up spot. Smith proceeded to lead the next lap over Larson, Herbst, Logano and Heim while Suarez, Hocevar, Reddick, Preece and Byron were in the top 10 ahead of Cole Custer, Nemechek, Chastain, Buescher, Allmendinger, Blaney, Gilliland, Berry, Briscoe and Hamlin, respectively. Smith then led the Lap 35 mark before Larson assumed the top spot for the first time during the next lap.
On Lap 36, Reddick spun by himself in Turn 8, but he was dodged by the field and he continued without drawing a caution. Seconds later, a host of names that included Zane Smith, Heim, Erik Jones, Cole Custer, Hamlin, Cody Ware and Byron pitted under green while Gibbs and Nemechek had also pitted earlier. The following lap, Gragson spun and sustained right-side damage amid contact from Kevin Magnussen in Turn 4, but he continued without drawing a caution. Back at the front, Larson pitted prior to the Lap 38 mark and just before pit road became inaccessible due to the second stage period nearing its conclusion. With Larson pitting, Herbst cycled into the lead.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 40, Preece, who overtook Herbst for the lead a lap prior, claimed his second Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Herbst settled in second ahead of Buescher, Allmendinger, Blaney, Hocevar, Suarez, Chastain, Gilliland and Logano, respectively, while 34 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, some led by Herbst and including Allmendinger, Hocevar, Suarez, Logano, Ellliott, Chastain, Cindric, Stenhouse, Keselowski and Wallace pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Preece remained on the track.
With 33 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Preece and Buescher occupied the front row in front of Gilliland, Blaney, Briscoe and Austin Dillon. At the start, Preece managed to fend off Buescher through the first turn despite getting bumped by Gilliland. As the field navigated through the second turn, Josh Berry got sideways after he got hit by Custer, with Berry then sustaining front nose damage when he collided into Custer while Reddick briefly got airborne amid a stack-up. Berry managed to continue and the event proceeded without drawing a caution. Back at the front, Blaney and Gilliland bumped against one another entering Turn 6 for third place while Buescher cycled into the lead over Preece.
Following a caution period that flew with 32 laps remaining due to debris in the second turn, the next restart with 30 laps remaining featured Buescher rocketing away from Blaney, Preece and the field through the first turn before the field fanned out entering the second turn. Within the field, Magnussen spun, but the race proceeded under green as Buescher retained the lead. Behind, Larson and Briscoe battled and overtook Preece for third and fourth on the track before Preece fought back and reassumed fourth place from Briscoe prior to the 12th turn. This allowed Byron to join the battle as he battled Briscoe for a top-five spot while Buescher proceeded to lead the next lap.
With 28 laps remaining, Byron pitted under green and had the hood of his No. 24 Anduril Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry lifted up due to making contact with the wall and reporting something within his car was damaged. As Blaney battled Buescher for the lead, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones wrecked in the second turn, but both continued without drawing a caution. Blaney prevailed in his battle by assuming the lead while Larson also assumed the runner-up spot from Buescher. While Blaney led the next lap, Elliott spun through Turns 10 and 11 while racing in front of Cindric, and Keselowski limped to pit road with left-front damage after he got sandwiched by Stenhouse and the left-side wall in Turn 12. Meanwhile, Larson overtook Blaney entering the chicane, and he led his first lap with 26 laps remaining.
Then with 25 laps remaining, select names like Briscoe, Gilliland, McDowell, Magnussen, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones pitted. Zane Smith, Buescher, Preece, Bowman and Cindric also pitted during the following two laps as Larson retained a steady lead over Heim. Blaney then pitted from third place with 21 laps remaining while Larson continued to lead by more than four seconds during the next lap. By then, Hocevar, Chastain and Wallace were in the top five while Reddick, Allmendinger, Gibbs, Herbst and Hamlin were scored in the top 10, respectively,
As the event reached its final 16-lap mark, the top-two leaders of Larson and Heim pitted together as Heim had reeled in Larson for the lead. Following the duo’s pit stops, Larson beat Heim off of pit road. Then as Hocevar, Reddick, Wallace and Chastain pitted with 15 laps remaining, the caution flew due to Stenhouse making contact with the left-hand wall in the first turn and dropping fluid through the course’s first two turns.
At the time of caution, Buescher cycled through with the lead ahead of Zane Smith and Hamlin while Hocevar was credited by being scored in fourth place after he cycled back on the track from pit road ahead of Larson and Heim. During the caution, some led by Buescher and including Hamlin, Zane Smith, McDowell, Suarez, Blaney, Briscoe, Logano, Cindric and Austin Dillon pitted while the rest led by Hocevar remained on the track.
Down to the final 12 laps of the event, the green flag waved and Hocevar maintained a narrow lead over Larson through the first turn before both dueled through the second turn. Hocevar then motored his No. 77 Spectrum Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead of Larson through the third turn as Reddick, who nearly reeled in Hocevar, challenged Larson for the runner-up spot. Reddick and Heim then both overtook Larson prior to the sixth turn while Larson was trying to retain fourth place from Wallace and Gibbs. As Wallace overtook Larson through Turns 9 and 10, Hocevar made slight contact with the left-side wall in Turn 12. This allowed Reddick to assume the lead. Not long after, Hocevar spun through the chicane and was hit on the left side by a spinning Chastain.
Amid the incident with Hocevar and Chastain, the event remained under green as Reddick led the next lap. By then, Reddick had teammates Heim and Wallace lurking behind in second and third while Larson was mired back in fourth ahead of Herbst and Gibbs. As Reddick led by half a second with 10 laps remaining, teammate Heim trailed in the runner-up spot by half a second while teammate Wallace trailed in third place by more than two seconds. Meanwhile, 23XI Racing’s fourth competitor, Herbst, trailed the lead by more than four seconds in fifth place while Larson was mired in fourth place.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Reddick, who maintained a steady advantage over teammate Heim during the previous five laps, continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Heim. Behind, Wallace retained third place and he trailed the lead by seven-tenths of a second, but he had Larson trailing him by nearly a tenth of a second. Behind, Allmendinger overtook Herbst for fifth place while Zane Smith, Buescher, Blaney and McDowell trailed in the top 10 ahead of Chastain, Gibbs, Elliott, Nemechek, Preece, Hamlin, Logano, Suarez, Erik Jones and Briscoe, Meanwhile, Hocevar was mired back in 21st ahead of Austin Dillon, Gilliland, Bowman and Cindric.
Then with three laps remaining, Reddick nearly slid towards the wall as he was trying to navigate through the sharp left-hand second turn. This allowed Heim to reel in towards Reddick’s rear bumper. Then in the third turn, Heim got beneath Reddick and they dueled through the fourth turn. Heim then assumed the lead through a brief straightaway that led to Turn 5 while Reddick crossed over and tried to reassume the lead. Then in the fifth turn, the two 23XI Racing competitors made contact and Heim went wide through the turn. Despite making light contact with the wall on the right side, Heim motored his No. 67 Mobil 1/O’Reilly’s Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead of Reddick as Reddick yielded the lead to his teammate.
As both Larson and Wallace trailed by more than eight seconds in third and fourth, respectively, Heim led with two laps remaining by six-tenths of a second over Reddick. Reddick then fell off the pace and limped around the track with a flat left-front tire to his No. 45 Pala Casino Toyota Camry XSE entry. With Reddick losing spots, Wallace reassumed the runner-up spot from Larson as Heim maintained a large lead through every turn.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Heim remained in the lead by more than nine seconds over teammate Wallace and 10 seconds over Larson. With no competition lurking or reeling from behind, Heim smoothly navigated his way around the Naval Base Coronado course’s 16 turns smoothly for a final time before he cycled back to the finish line and claimed the checkered flag by more than 10 seconds over Wallace and Larson.
With the victory, Heim, who won in his 13th career start, became the 209th competitor overall to win in the Cup Series division and the first competitor to achieve a first Cup career victory on a street/road course venue since Shane van Gisbergen won in his debut start in July 2023. Heim also joins Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar as first-time Cup Series winners of the 2026 season.
Overall, Heim, who will drive for 23XI Racing as a full-time Cup Series competitor in 2027, became the fourth competitor to win driving for 23XI Racing and he delivered the organization’s 15th Cup career victory. He also recorded the third career victory for veteran crew chief Robert ‘Bootie’ Barker and the first for 23XI Racing’s No. 67 Toyota entry.
“I’m speechless,” Heim said on Prime Video. “We started the race, I think we started 13th. We fell straight back to like 20th, then put on our scuffs [tires] from qualifying and struggled just as bad. I don’t know if we made any adjustments, but Bootie [Barker] kept telling me that these were our worst two sets of tires. We’re gonna be just fine, and he was right. I couldn’t believe that we strapped another set of tires on and we were just fine. [I] hit the wall a couple times, maybe it knocked some good into the car. I have no idea. After Stage 2, I just kind of took a deep breath and was like I had really high expectations coming into this race. It’s an even playing field for me. I don’t see that every day for a young driver like myself and I just kind of took a deep breath and reset and went after it.”
“For a while there, I thought [Reddick] was kind of playing with me,” Heim added, “[Reddick]’s able to set the pace being the lead car, but I was kind of able to stick with it. I’m like I’m not really burning my stuff up. So, five [laps] to go came, and it’s just kind of time to put some pressure on him, see if I could get him to make a mistake and sure enough, he did. I guess he ended up breaking or something. I don’t know what happened to him, but a lot of respect for him, though. He doored me down there in [Turn] 5 and gave [the lead] back to me. That’s something you don’t see every day. Great teammates. Just crazy. It feels like a dream. I hope I don’t wake up from this dream…This is insane. I didn’t expect to come into my part-time season and win, but here we are. I mean, it’s crazy. It hasn’t even sunk in yet. I’m sure I’ll get emotional in a little bit, but it really hasn’t even sunk in yet.”
Before the 2027 season occurs, Heim has six Cup events remaining to the 2026 season: Chicagoland Speedway (7/5), Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (7/26), Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway (8/29), Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (9/6), Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (10/11) and the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (11/8).
Meanwhile, Tyler Reddick, who led two laps and rallied from a Lap 36 spin, settled in 25th place following his late cut tire that took him out of contention for a race victory. Amid the disappointment of falling short of the victory and having his series’ points lead shrink, Reddick saluted teammate Heim over their late-race battle and the latter’s first victory.
“We were involved in so much today,” Reddick said. “To even have a shot at it at the end was really nice. I thought I was going to be able to hold [Heim] off there…I got beat by our own stuff, so yeah, we’ll try to figure this out. It definitely stings. First and foremost, congratulations to Corey. I tried to battle back and overdid it. I really did. I ran him straight in the wall [in Turn 5] and that wasn’t right. I wasn’t going to pass him for the win that way, especially a teammate. It’s a real shame. I don’t know if I cut the tire during, before or after [the contact]. I’m not really sure. [I] Really needed a good points day and had another really bad one, so we’ll try and scrape together and have a decent finish in Sonoma.”
Bubba Wallace rallied from the early left-front wheel detachment that pinned him two laps behind the leaders to finish in second place for his highest-finishing result thus far in the 2026 season. As a result, both he and Heim notched the first 1-2 finish for 23XI Racing as Wallace also achieved his career-best result on a street/road course event. While Wallace was left disappointed on the detached wheel error and ending up a single spot short of winning for the first time this season, he was also left pleased with his progress on road course events and praised Heim for the victory.
“Super happy for [Heim],” Wallace said. “He’s put in so much work when he’s off behind the scenes, running sim and he and I have a really good relationship. I beat him yesterday in qualifying, but he beat me today. He’ll have that bragging right for a while, but happy for that [No. 67] group. Bootie [Barker] calling the shots, getting him another win was really, really special. A great day for Toyota, great day for 23XI [Racing]. [I] Appreciate all the help getting me to where I’m at on road courses and yeah, on to Sonoma.”
Kyle Larson, who led 11 laps, settled in third place while Zane Smith rallied from a two-race slump to finish in fourth place. AJ Allmendinger finished in fifth place for his first top-five result of the 2026 season. Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Riley Herbst, Ryan Blaney and Michael McDowell completed the top 10 in the final running order. Notably, Denny Hamlin settled in 14th place ahead of teammate Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar ended up in 19th place. Kevin Magnussen, who set the fastest lap of the event on Lap 72, finished in 27th place in his Cup Series debut while Jimmie Johnson finished 28th in his penultimate Cup Series career start.
There were 20 lead changes for 13 different leaders. The event featured seven cautions for 11 laps. In addition, 29 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 17th event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick leads the standings by eight points over Denny Hamlin while Ryan Blaney trails in third place by 133 points, Kyle Larson trails in fourth place by 180 points and Ty Gibbs trails by 181 points.
Results:
- Corey Heim, three laps led
- Bubba Wallace, two laps led
- Kyle Larson, 11 laps led
- Zane Smith, three laps led
- AJ Allmendinger
- Chris Buescher, seven laps led
- Ross Chastain
- Riley Herbst, three laps led
- Ryan Blaney, 12 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Michael McDowell
- Ryan Preece, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Chase Elliott
- Daniel Suarez
- Denny Hamlin
- Ty Gibbs
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Chase Briscoe
- Joey Logano
- Carson Hocevar, four laps led
- Erik Jones
- Todd Gilliland
- Austin Cindric
- Cody Ware
- Austin Dillon
- Tyler Reddick, nine laps led
- Alex Bowman
- Kevin Magnussen
- Jimmie Johnson
- Josh Berry
- Ty Dillon, one lap down
- Cole Custer, three laps down
- William Byron, seven laps down
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Radiator
- Brad Keselowski, 16 laps down
- Noah Gragson – OUT, Accident
- Austin Hill – OUT, Accident, one lap led
- Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident, eight laps led
- Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Accident, seven laps led
- Christopher Bell (*subbed by Brent Crews) – OUT, Engine
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California, which will also be the first of five In-Season Challenge events over the next five weeks. The Sonoma event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, June 28, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, PRN Radio, SiriusXM, and HBO MAX.
