With the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season halfway complete, Corey Heim is also halfway complete towards his select starts in NASCAR’s premier series this season. It comes as he is seven months away from returning to the series as a full-time competitor for 23XI Racing, a team that has been competitive and is primed for a championship run since this year’s start.
Flashback to February, Heim, the reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion and a development competitor for 23XI Racing from Marietta, Georgia, was revealed to compete in 12 of 36 Cup events this season. Prior to this season, he had made four Cup starts with 23XI in 2025 and a trio of starts between 23XI and Legacy Motor Club in 2024. His best on-track results between the latter two years were a sixth-place run at Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.533-mile short track circuit, in September 2025.
Despite not having a full-time ride within NASCAR’s top-three national touring series secured for this season, Heim’s 2026 Cup starts featured a mix of prestigious crown-jewel events, including this year’s 68th running of the Daytona 500, and 1.5-mile circuits, as all indications signified a futuristic promotion to compete as a full-time Cup competitor began to brew bigger than before.
Through seven of his 12 Cup starts this season, Heim, who is piloting the No. 67 Toyota Camry XSE entry and has veteran Bootie Barker calling the shots as a crew chief, has endured an up-and-down battle on the track while competing against NASCAR’s elite in the sport’s premier series. His current average-starting result is 24.9, and his average-finishing result is 18.3, the latter of which is due to finishing outside the top-20 mark a trio of times.
Amid the challenges, Heim achieved breakthrough moments, including leading 8 laps while contending up front in the latter stages of the Daytona 500 and leading 69 laps at Texas Motor Speedway. Perhaps the Georgian’s biggest feat was scoring his first Cup career victory during the series’ inaugural event at San Diego’s Naval Base Coronado after outdueling teammate Tyler Reddick in the closing laps. Against the odds, even one that Heim himself did not foresee, the San Diego victory exceeded the expectations 23XI Racing co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin placed on Heim as the latter continues to learn, grow, and develop with each experience he gains in Cup Series competition.
“Prior to [the win at San Diego], I think [this year]’s been pretty up and down,” Heim said. “I had a couple of good runs along the way and had some potential to run well. I was pretty down on myself after [Nashville Superspeedway] and wanted to rebound at San Diego to prove that we are able to run upfront, in the top 10 and whatnot. Obviously, I hit the one out of the park with the win there. It’s just so hard to compare the road courses to intermediates, so…I need to do some work on those. Good year so far for us, but I definitely want a little bit more out of myself for the 1.5-miles.”
This past weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, which is another 1.5-mile circuit, Heim accomplished another feat at a track he had never competed at in prior years by achieving a strong ninth-place result, where he finished a single spot ahead of teammate Riley Herbst, whom Heim is replacing at 23XI in 2027, and three spots behind another teammate, Bubba Wallace. Heim’s ninth-place result marks his second top-10 result through seven Cup starts and his third overall in the series.
Heim’s next Cup start for this season is the 2.5-mile oval circuit of Indianapolis Motor Speedway for his first campaign in the crown-jewel Brickyard 400 on July 26. His remaining Cup starts include the 2026 Cup regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway on August 29, the crown-jewel Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on September 6 during Labor Day weekend, the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 11, and the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 8.
As Heim strives to continue to utilize and build on the notes garnered through his select Cup starts for the rest of his starts this season, he also has his sights on 2027 as he prepares for his first full-time campaign in the Cup Series in 2027, with the announcement of his promotion occurring at Nashville Superspeedway in mid-May. Amid the challenges of embracing the role of being a full-time Cup competitor for the first time ever, Heim embraces it as he strives to improve his racing craft to be competitive for next season and the years ahead.
“It’s gonna be a grind, but being able to be in the [Cup] seat on a weekly basis is a big advantage,” Heim said. “Just getting that muscle memory better and better on a weekly basis. Kind of better than being out of the car a couple of weeks at a time and trying to improve off of that, for sure.”
Tune in for Corey Heim’s next NASCAR Cup Series scheduled start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 on July 26. The event’s broadcast is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, SiriusXM, and HBO MAX.
