Georgia Native Scores first Win in 13th Series Start to Mark Strong Race for 23XI
SAN DIEGO (June 21, 2026) – Corey Heim executed a perfect late race pass on 23XI and Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick to notch his first career NASCAR Cup Series win Sunday afternoon in the inaugural San Diego Street Race at Naval Base Coronado.
The victory marked the first time Toyota has won four straight Cup Series races since 2017 and the fifth time overall in its 20-year history in NASCAR’s top series. The win was also notable as the first time the No. 67 found victory lane in the 78-year existence of the Cup Series.
The race was Toyota’s 11th total victory this season. The race also marked a strong day for 23XI Racing overall, as Bubba Wallace finished in the runner-up spot for 23XI’s first ever 1-2 finish. Additionally, the team had all four cars inside the top six with just a few laps to go. Small issues pushed Riley Herbt to an eighth-place finish and relegated Reddick to a 25th-place finish. Reddick had a impressive day going where he led nine total laps, but was passed for the lead by Heim with just three laps to go during a hard fought, but clean battle between teammates.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
San Diego Street Race on Naval Base Coronado
Race 17 of 36 – 255 miles, 75 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, COREY HEIM
2nd, BUBBA WALLACE
3rd, Kyle Larson*
4th, Zane Smith*
5th, AJ Allmendinger*
8th, RILEY HERBST
14th, DENNY HAMLIN
15th, TY GIBBS
16th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
17th, CHASE BRISCOE
20th, ERIK JONES
25th, TYLER REDDICK
28th, JIMMIE JOHNSON
39th, CHRISTOPHER BELL/BRENT CREWS
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
COREY HEIM, No. 67 Mobil 1/O’Reilly Auto Parts Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How does it feel for your first career win?
“I’m speechless. I mean, we started the race, I mean, I think we started 13th. We fell straight back to 20th. Then put on our scuffs from qualifying, struggled just as bad. I don’t know if we made any adjustments. Bootie (Barker, crew chief) kept telling me these were our worst two sets of tire, we were going to be fine. He was right. I couldn’t believe it. We strapped another set of tires on, and we were just fine. Hit the wall a couple of times and maybe knocked some good into the car. I have no idea. After stage two, I just took a deep breath. I had high expectations coming into this race. Even playing field for me. You don’t see that every day for a young driver like myself. Just kind of took a deep breath, reset and went after it. Caught a couple breaks with some of the good guys out.
How was the battle with your teammate Tyler Reddick?
“I feel like for a while I thought he was kind of playing with me, but he was able to set the pace being the lead car. I was able to stick with him. I’m not really burning my stuff up. Five to go came. Time to put some pressure on him, see if I could get him to make a mistake. Sure enough he did. I think he ended up braking or something. I don’t know what happened to me. He doored me down there in five and gave me back to me. That’s something you don’t see every day. That’s a great teammate. I don’t know. Just crazy. It feels like a dream. I hope I don’t wake up from this dream. This is insane. So thankful for 23XI, Mobil 1, Toyota for this journey. I didn’t expect to come into my part-time season and win. Here we are. It’s crazy. Hasn’t even sunk in yet. I’m sure it will.”
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 Xfinity Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
You had an eventful day, how did you manage to pull off a second-place finish?
“We are all busting our ass to perform and to have a little thing not go our way. I got to focus on what we can control, but all in all a good day for Toyota and a good day for Xfinity and a good day for our team. I believe that’s the first 1-2 finish for our team, but I could be wrong. Good to come out of here in San Diego and have a bit of fun, appreciate NASCAR and appreciate the Navy for everything they did here this weekend.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Bob’s Discount Furniture Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 14th
Which part of this day makes you happy, that you cut the points lead down or your young driver winning?
“The driver part, the points are the points. Really happy for Corey and that whole team. Dave Rogers (23XI Competition Director) doing such a good job, they are putting that fourth entry together and piecing together guys from around the shop and some development guys. We gave Corey an agenda this week that in each start his is our expectations, here’s what we want you to work on. I don’t think this was in the agenda for San Diego. He’s been good at road course racing anyway, as (Ryan) Blaney mentioned, he’s going to be a problem.”
Tell us about your day behind the wheel with your No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE
“I felt really good about where our car was all day. We were at the line on pit road and he says I don’t think you’re going to make and I steered hard left and the caution came out. That stunk, had to start 19th or 20th on the last restart and only could get back to 14th. Inside the top-15, that was the agenda for this week and will try to go to Sonoma and do the same thing.”
RILEY HERBST, No. 35 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
How did you miss the big wreck earlier in the race?
“I don’t know. It’s so tricky. This corner is so difficult. This asphalt is just so slick. I think that was the restart where everybody had some confidence and we just wanted to pick it up a little bit. The front two, the 88, 97, 33, I think they kept bluffing each other into turn one. The marbles caught it. I was lucky enough to miss it there on the bottom. All in all, a good day for this 35 car. I thought we had a fourth-place finish. Got moved there on the last lap by the 16. Finished eighth. We’ll take it and go try again at Sonoma.”
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Pala Casino Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 25th
Can you tell us about your battle with Corey Heim for the win?
“We were involved in so much today. To even have a shot at it at the end was really nice. I thought I was going to be able to hold him off there. Yeah, we kind of just struggled with rear tire life all weekend long. I got beat by our own stuff. 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 it. I ran him straight in the wall. 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. I’m not really sure. Really needed good points day. Had another really bad one. We’ll try and scrape together and have a decent finish in Sonoma.”
BRENT CREWS, No. 20 Craftsman Racing for a Miracle Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 39th (Finish will be credited to Christopher Bell as he started the race)
What happened out there to put you out of the race?
“I was kind of going through the gears and it just broke, I’m not really sure. I’m going to have to have Adam (Stevens, crew chief) to look over it and myself to figure out if it was something I did or if it was just a freak accident. Once I look at it I’ll have more answers. It’s really unfortunate for this whole team. We came here to get points and coming out with not much. Unfortunate for the whole group, it was a great opportunity to come and learn and try and help these guys out.”
What were the challenges of going from the O’Reilly car to the Cup car?
“I had three laps I think in the Cup car and five in the O’Reilly car, so it was just trying to learn to the best of my ability. They are a lot different, the grip level is a lot less in the Cup car, but it’s got a lot of brakes but right after that it falls off and you don’t see that as much in the O’Reilly car.”
About Toyota
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