BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 6, 2026) — Corey Heim will be chasing a whopping $500,000 bonus this weekend as he tries for his third consecutive win and a sweep of the NASCAR Triple Truck Challenge during the Tennessee Army National Guard 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The defending NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champ enters the Bristol weekend riding high from victories in the first two legs of the Triple Truck Challenge, at Darlington, S.C. and last weekend at Rockingham, N.C. He has put $150,000 in his pocket already and will try to add $350,000 to bring the total to $500,000 if he’s successful around the ultra-challenging all-concrete high banks in Tennessee.
Heim’s pursuit of bonus cash is just one of many fun storylines heading into the Tennessee Army National Guard 250, which will be held under the lights with a scheduled green flag for 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1, PRN Radio).
Heim, who is not chasing the Truck championship this season, will be driving the No. 1 Tundra for TRICON Garage in a limited season schedule. He is signed up for owner’s points, which allows him to race for the Triple Truck Challenge. He says once he’s strapped in the truck he just tries to focus on winning.
“I don’t really think about it in the truck but being able to reflect on it – it would be cool to be the first person to sweep all three if we are able to do it,” said Heim, who has won at Bristol before in a Truck, coming in the fall of 2023. “There is a lot of motivation for these guys in the No. 1 camp with Celsius as our primary (at Bristol), so super excited about that.”
A stout field of regular competitors will be trying to deny Heim of his six-figure payday and they are all eligible to claim a $50,000 bonus of their own should they win. Those drivers include Kaden Honeycutt, who drives the No. 11 TRICON entry that Heim drove to the series crown one year ago, two-time Bristol winners Layne Riggs and his Front Row Motorsports teammate Chandler Smith, and a few other past Bristol winners, including Ty Majeski, Christian Eckes and Ben Rhodes.
One of the other fun storylines that is amplifying this event is the addition of four Cup Series regulars to the field who will be chasing victory that night as well. They include 23-time Bristol winner (includes five Truck wins) Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez.
Hocevar has been running a bunch of truck races early in the season and has amassed several top-fives. This will be the first Truck start for Suarez in five years at Bristol as he drives the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
If that’s not enough competition, there’s a whole group of eager youngsters in the class ready to battle, some for the first time at Bristol, and want nothing more than to steal the spotlight away from Heim. Those include Cole Butcher, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, Mini Tyrell, Dawson Sutton, Luke Baldwin and decorated dirt driver Carson Ferguson, who will pilot Kaulig Racing’s No. 25 “Free Agent” Dodge Ram truck.
“Getting this shot to race with Kaulig Racing means a lot,” Ferguson said. “Bristol is a tough, high-banked track and a heck of a place to make your pavement debut in NASCAR. I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of that No. 25 Ram and show what I can do.”
Last weekend Heim and Honeycutt put on a show coming to the checkered flag that brought fans to their feet. With everything that’s on the line at Bristol it could certainly be more of the same.
At the Rock, Heim was trying to close out the final laps of the race out front, but Honeycutt was charging. The result was a three-lap sequence that had several close calls. Heim said his truck’s right front was failing and he was running out of time.
“I didn’t push it any harder than any previous run or do any more damage to the right front, but it was like all of a sudden with four to go, my truck started just – I had to turn more right down the straightaway to keep it straight,” Heim explained. “My wheel was clocked at like 20 degrees to the right and it was chattering really bad in the corners, and I was like oh boy here we go, we’re going to lose this one in the worst way possible, but it hung in there and I just had to use a couple of lapped trucks to hold him off. Respect Kaden (Honeycutt) for racing me clean.”
Honeycutt tried several times to go around Heim but ultimately wasn’t able to put a pass together as Heim weaved in and out of lapped traffic.
“I was hoping everyone would have moved when we started racing each other, but it is part of it – it is part of racing and you have to navigate it,” Honeycutt said. “He did an excellent job there at that last corner. I tried to shove Tanner (Gray) as far as I can and hoped that he would have gone to the bottom or something like that, but I don’t really know what I could have done differently other than run me and him down in the marbles and all that. I didn’t want to do that, but I wanted to make sure that me or Corey (Heim) won the race, and I obviously wanted to win it, but it was good that our TRICON organization could do that.”
The Bristol race weekend kicks off with the Craftsman Trucks on the Bristol high banks on the evening of April 10 for the Tennessee Army National Guard 250 Truck Race (7:30 p.m., FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM Radio); On Saturday, April 11, it will be action-packed with the Suburban Propane 300 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race (7:30 p.m., The CW, PRN Radio, Sirius XM Radio) and Bush’s Beans Qualifying for both the Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series; The tradition-rich Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race will thrill fans on Sunday afternoon, April 12 (3 p.m., FS1, PRN Radio, Sirius XM Radio) and bring the fun weekend to a triumphant finish.
In addition to cheering on their favorite drivers on the track, fans at Bristol Motor Speedway will want to take advantage of so many activities to make a complete weekend of family fun. There will be great video entertainment provided by Colossus TV, the world’s largest center-hung video screen, plenty of music throughout the event including a pair of post-race concerts Friday and Saturday and a pre-race concert on Sunday just ahead of driver introductions, premium VIP experiences, tailgating, on-site camping, a pre-race track walk on the legendary oval, and other entertainment at the Food City Fan Zone Stage headlined by Trackside Live with Kenny Wallace and John Roberts, great food and beverages in the concession stands throughout the property, and so much more.
Fans can purchase tickets to the Food City 500 weekend of races or any events at Bristol Motor Speedway, please visit the track’s website or call the BMS Ticket Sales Center at (866) 415-4158. You can also purchase tickets at any neighborhood Food City store while supplies lasts.
About Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol Motor Speedway, known as The Last Great Colosseum, sits in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee near the Virginia state line. The 0.533-mile concrete oval, with 28-degree banking, hosts two major NASCAR Cup Series weekends each year, the tradition-rich Food City 500 and the crown jewel Bass Pro Shops Night Race. The venue has staged iconic moments such as the 2016 Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol football game between the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech (NCAA-record 156,990 fans), the 2025 MLB Speedway Classic between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds (MLB regular-season record crowd of 91,032), the 2020 NASCAR All-Star Race, the rebirth of NASCAR Cup Series racing on dirt from 2021–2023 and sold-out concerts for Morgan Wallen and Kenny Chesney. Fans enjoy Colossus TV, the world’s largest outdoor center-hung four-sided screen video board. The adjacent Bristol Dragway is the home to the NHRA Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals, and the dragway can transform into the Thunder Valley Amphitheatre for music concerts. Opened in 1961 and acquired by Speedway Motorsports in 1996, Bristol remains one of America’s most unique and versatile sports and entertainment destinations. For more information, please visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com.
