Corey Heim reigned supreme for a second time in his brief NASCAR Cup Series career by etching his name as a Brickyard 400 champion, a feat in which he achieved at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) on Sunday, July 26.
The reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion from Marietta, Georgia, led four times for a race-high 58 of 160-scheduled laps in an event mired with various pit strategies and late on-track battles towards the front. Heim, who qualified in seventh place for his first Brickyard 400 career start, spent the opening laps racing within the top-10 mark and navigated through an early round of green-flag pit stop strategies and a one-lap shootout to conclude the first stage period by settling in the runner-up spot.
During the second stage period, Heim, who restarted alongside Ty Gibbs on the front row and was outdueled by the latter, proceeded to lead 17 laps as another cycle of pit stops ensued, in which Heim waited until Lap 91 to pit. As the pit stops from the field cycled through, Heim also cycled through to settle in fifth place at the second stage’s conclusion.
Heim then spent the first two restarts of the third and final stage period being outdueled by Toyota teammates Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin, the latter of which, with 41 laps remaining, resulted in Heim nearly getting turned by Joey Logano entering the first turn. Then during the final restart with 34 laps remaining, Heim capitalized by receiving a strong push from Logano to fend off Hamlin and assume the lead through the first two turns. Amid loose conditions, Heim then spent the event’s remainder fending off Christopher Bell and Logano through every turn and straightaway to notch his first crown jewel victory in NASCAR’s premier series and notch another win as a part-time competitor for 23XI Racing.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 25, Carson Hocevar notched his second pole position of the 2026 season and the third of his career with a pole-winning lap at 186.598 mph in 48.232 seconds. Teammate Daniel Suarez qualified in second place with a lap at 186.382 mph in 48.288 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Carson Hocevar, who elected to start on the inside lane, bolted his No. 77 Zeigler Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead of teammate Daniel Suarez and the field through the first turn. As Hocevar led for a full circuit around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a bevy of on-track action ensued as the field fanned out through the backstretch. Amid the early battles, Hocevar led the first lap by seven-tenths of a second over Suarez while Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs and the rest of the field followed suit.
Over the next four laps, Hocevar stretched his early advantage to as high as two-and-a-half seconds over Suarez while Reddick, Hamlin, Gibbs, Corey Heim and Kyle Larson trailed by as far back as five seconds, respectively. Meanwhile, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger and Alex Bowman occupied the remaining top-10 spots ahead of Cole Custer, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher and William Byron while Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Brad Keselowski, Riley Herbst and Austin Dillon were racing in the top 20, respectively. Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace, the reigning Brickyard 400 winner, was mired in 29th place. Chase Elliott was racing in 25th place ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, and Christopher Bell occupied 22nd place ahead of Joey Logano. In addition, Todd Gilliland, who was battling Blaney for the $1 million bonus for the In-Season Challenge title, was racing in 34th place while Hocevar continued to lead the event by more than two seconds at the Lap 10 mark.
Through the Lap 15 mark and with the field scattered, Hocevar stabilized his advantage to two-and-a-half seconds over Suarez, with third-place Reddick and fourth-place Hamlin both trailing by three seconds. Behind, fifth-place Ty Gibbs trailed by five seconds, and both Heim and Larson, both of whom raced in sixth and seventh, respectively, trailed the lead by six seconds while McDowell, Allmendinger and Bowman all continued to race in the top 10.
By Lap 18, Austin Dillon, who had been slowly dropping towards the rear after starting in 20th place, made a pit stop to have a flat tire on his No. 3 BREZTRI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry addressed under green, which cost him a lap. Amid Dillon’s early issues, Hocevar retained the lead by more than two seconds by Lap 20 before Elliott, who was mired within the top-25 mark, pitted his two laps later under green. With Ty Dillon also pitting, Hocevar had his advantage over Suarez shrink to six-tenths of a second at the Lap 25 mark.
On Lap 26, Chase Briscoe, who was racing in 14th place, pitted under green. Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron and Larson pitted their respective Chevrolet entries over the next two laps. Of all the competitors who pitted early, Larson was the only competitor who managed to blend back on the racetrack ahead of Hocevar and remain on the lead lap. As Ty Gibbs and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pitted their respective entries, Hocevar continued to lead by half a second over Hocevar on Lap 30 before more names like Michael McDowell and Allmendinger pitted during the next lap.
The leader, Hocevar, then pitted under green on Lap 32 as Suarez was being challenged by Reddick and Hamlin for the lead, with the trio trying to also navigate around the lapped competitor of Byron. Suarez then pitted during the next lap and surrendered his brief lead to Hamlin. Prior to Suarez’s pit service, he locked up his front tires to have his racing pace reduced and avoid the penalty of driving through pit road for a second time due to speeding.
Just past the Lap 35 mark, Hamlin, who has yet to pit, was leading by half a second over Tyler Reddick, Corey Heim, Bowman and Cole Custer while Blaney, Buescher, Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek and Brad Keselowski occupied the top-10 mark, respectively. As more names that included Noah Gragson and Keselowski pitted, a bevy of names that included Cole Custer, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch all pitted nearing the No. 39 mark. Hamlin then surrendered the lead on Lap 40 to pit under green before Todd Gilliland, Reddick, Blaney, Bell, Ryan Preece, Bubba Wallace, Logano, Erik Jones and Zane Smith pitted their respective entries. By then, the top-four competitors that included Heim, John Hunter Nemechek, Josh Berry and Austin Cindric were leading the field while Larson, the first competitor to cycle through following the green flag pit stops, was in fifth place ahead of Gibbs, Hocevar and Suarez.
As Nemechek, Berry and Cindric pitted by Lap 43, Heim pitted from the lead during the next lap. Then just as Larson was about to cycle to the lead in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, his event came to an abrupt end on Lap 44 when he blew a left-rear tire and wrecked backward against the Turn 3 outside wall. Larson’s incident allowed Gibbs to cycle through as the leader while Hocevar, Heim, Suarez and McDowell were scored in the top five, respectively.
During a one-lap shootout to conclude the first stage period, Gibbs fended off the field for a full cycle to notch his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2026 season on lap 50. Heim settled in second place ahead of McDowell, Hocevar and Byron while Hamlin, Suarez, Briscoe, Buescher and Reddick were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 34 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap. During this stage break period, Briscoe, Chastain, Preece, Gilliland, Austin Dillon and Byron pitted while the rest led by Gibbs remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 55 as Gibbs and Heim occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs motored his No. 54 SAIA Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead with the lead from the inside lane as McDowell overtook Heim to assume the runner-up spot through the first turn. As the field fanned out through the backstretch before navigating through the third turn, all competitors kept their entries racing straight for a full cycle as Gibbs led the next lap. With a bevy of on-track battles and shuffling ensuing within the midfield region, the front-runners scattered while racing in single-line formation as Gibbs stretched his lead to two seconds at the Lap 60 mark. Meanwhile, Elliott limped his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry to pit road with a flat right-rear tire after he made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. through the backstretch. The incident and damage were enough to terminate Elliott’s hopes of achieving his first Brickyard 400 victory as he nursed his entry to the garage for repairs.
Through the Lap 70 mark, Gibbs extended his lead to more than three seconds over both McDowell and Heim while Hocevar and Hamlin trailed by four seconds inside of the top-five mark. Behind, Buescher and Reddick trailed by more than five seconds in sixth and seventh, respectively, while both Cole Custer and Brad Keselowski were mired more than six seconds behind while racing in eighth and ninth, respectively. Suarez occupied 10th place in front of Bowman, Logano, Blaney, Nemechek, Bell, Zane Smith, Berry, Erik Jones, Riley Herbst and Bubba Wallace before Suarez strategically pitted under green three laps later. Teammate McDowell pitted from the runner-up spot a lap later before Gibbs surrendered the lead to pit another lap later.
At the event’s halfway mark on Lap 80, Heim, who cycled to the lead after Gibbs pitted, continued to lead by less than three seconds over Hocevar while Hamlin, Buescher, Reddick, Custer, Keselowski, Bowman, Logano and Blaney trailed in the top 10 ahead of Nemechek, Bell, Zane Smith, Berry, Herbst, Wallace, Allmendinger, Connor Zilisch, Shane van Gisbergen and William Byron, respectively. By then, 30 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap, with Gibbs managing to remain on the lead lap following his pit stops, while McDowell, Erik Jones, Suarez and Ty Dillon, all of whom pitted, were mired a lap down.
By Lap 82, Hocevar and Buescher pitted from the front of the field under green. Following their pit stops, the latter two competitors were lapped by Heim, who has yet to pit, while Connor Zilisch had pitted a lap earlier. Hamlin then pitted from the runner-up spot on Lap 84 and he managed to blend ahead of Heim to remain on the lead lap while Heim was trying to fend off Hocevar to keep the latter a lap behind.
Then, as more names that included Keselowski, Bowman, Herbst, Byron, Allmendinger, Casey Mears, Custer, Reddick, Zane Smith, Logano, Blaney, Bell, Wallace, van Gisbergen and Stenhouse pitted just past the Lap 90 mark, Heim surrendered the lead to pit on Lap 91. During Heim’s entrance to pit road, Hocevar, who was mired behind Heim and unable to un-lap himself, briefly pulled alongside Heim and gave him an obscene gesture for being raced competitively by rival Heim before motoring ahead to cycle back on the lead lap. Heim’s pit stop allowed Nemechek, who was among selected competitors who have yet to pit, to cycle to the lead while Heim, who had a slow pit service, was quickly overtaken by Gibbs and Hamlin on the track. Berry, Cindric and Gragson pitted over the next handful of laps, along with Briscoe and Austin Dillon, while Preece, who had yet to pit, led. By then, Gibbs, Hamlin and Heim cycled up from fourth to sixth on the track, respectively.
Then on Lap 96, the caution flew when Daniel Dye spun and wrecked his No. 78 Champion Container Corporation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry backward in Turn 3. At the moment of the caution, Preece had just pitted while Chastain and Gilliland, both of whom have yet to pit, occupied the top-two spots. This caution period concluded the second stage period that was scheduled to conclude on Lap 100. As a result, Chastain was awarded his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Gilliland settled in second ahead of Gibbs, Hamlin and Heim while Hocevar, Preece, McDowell, Erik Jones and Suarez were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 32 of 39 starters were scored on the lead lap. During the event’s second stage break period, the leaders Chastain and Gilliland pitted along with Allmendinger, Chastain, Ty Dillon, Zilisch and Austin Hill while the rest led by Gibbs remained on the track, with Gibbs cycling back as the leader.
With 56 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Gibbs and Heim occupied the front row in front of Hamlin, Preece, Hocevar, Jones and the field. At the start, Gibbs motored ahead of the field from the inside lane for a second consecutive restart while Hamlin and Heim battled dead even for the runner-up spot through the first two turns. As Hamlin grabbed the runner-up spot, Heim fended ff Hocevar to retain third place. Amid the battles within the field, Gibbs led the next lap. The field scattered as most raced in single-line formation over the following four laps as Gibbs led a hard-charging Hamlin by four-tenths of a second with 50 laps remaining. Behind, Heim, Hocevar and Preece were in the top five ahead of McDowell, Jones, Suarez, Buescher and Keselowski, respectively.
During a caution that flew with 46 laps remaining due to debris on the track, the entire field led by Gibbs pitted for service with the fuel window to reach the event’s scheduled distance remaining tight amongst the field, including the leaders. Following the pit stops and with mixed pit strategies ensuing, Heim, who pitted for two fresh tires, beat Hamlin off of pit road first to assume the lead. Logano, Bell, Briscoe, Reddick, Keselowski, Buescher, Preece and Bowman all followed suit by either opting for a two-tire pit service or fuel only while Hocevar, who pitted for fours tires, was mired back in 12th place. In addition, Gibbs exited pit road in 14th place. Amid the pit stops, Wallace overshot his pit box and ran over three of his pit crew members, which cost him a bevy of spots.
The next restart with 41 laps remaining featured Heim and Hamlin on the front row, where Hamlin, who had teammate Bell behind him, gained the upper hand and drove his No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead with the lead while Heim briefly had his momentum stalled to fend off a left-handed move by Logano amid brief contact. Reddick and Keselowski then briefly made contact entering the second turn while battling for seventh place. This caused the field to fan out and stack up through the backstretch while jostling for spots.
Then as the full-fledged field continued to stack up, the caution returned when Nemechek made contact and sent Blaney’s No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry for a spin as the latter two made contact with the outside wall in Turn 3. As the field scattered, Austin Hill turned Allmendinger while Herbst spun while getting by Casey Mears in the process, while the rest, including Gilliland, dodged the carnage. Amid the carnage, Hamlin was scored the leader ahead of Heim, Bell, Logano and Briscoe while Reddick, Keselowski, Preece, Berry and Hocevar were scored in the top 10. In addition, Blaney, whose damage to his entry was primarily on the right-front area, managed to continue.
For the next restart with 34 laps remaining, Heim capitalized on a push from Logano on the outside lane to motor the No. 67 Field & Stream Toyota Camry XSE entry ahead of Hamlin, who did not receive a push from teammate Bell from behind, with the lead through the first turn. As Hamlin tried to make a move beneath Heim, the latter blocked and stalled Hamlin’s momentum, which allowed Heim to retain the lead through the second turn and entering the backstretch. As Heim led, Bell overtook Hamlin for the runner-up spot while Hamlin fended off Logano amid a side-by-side battle before they entered the third turn. As the field fanned out while jostling for late spots, Heim led the next lap over Bell and Logano while Briscoe overtook Hamlin for fourth place. Over the next three laps, the field scattered and settled in single-line formation as Heim retained the lead by seven-tenths of a second over Bell while Logano, Briscoe, Hamlin, Keselowski, Berry, Preece, Reddick and Buescher followed suit in the top 10, respectively.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Heim’s lead stood at four-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell while Logano trailed in third place by two seconds. Behind Logano, Briscoe and Hamlin trailed by within a second of Logano while Keselowski, Berry, Preece, Reddick and Buescher continued to race in the top-10 mark ahead of Hocevar, Gibbs, Custer, Cindric, Zane Smith, van Gisbergen, Suarez, McDowell, Bowman and Stenhouse, respectively. Meanwhile, Gilliland was leading the In-Season Challenge by racing in 24th place and being three spots ahead of Blaney, with Allmendinger and Wallace being mired in between the In-Season Challenge finalists.
Five laps later, Heim, who was battling loose conditions, managed to stabilize his lead to two-tenths of a second over Bell, and Logano continued to occupy third place while trailing the lead by less than two seconds. Behind, Briscoe occupied fourth place by two-tenths of a second over Hamlin as Keselowski, Berry, Preece, Reddick and Buescher settled in the top 10. Meanwhile, Gilliland retained 24th place and was two spots ahead of Blaney and Logano, who were notching fast lap times compared to the two leaders and started to reel in on both Heim and Bell. As the event reached its final 15-lap mark, Logano trailed the lead by only a second while Heim continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Bell.
With 14 laps remaining, the top-three competitors of Heim, Bell and Logano were racing within nine-tenths of a second of one another as Logano continued to methodically reel in the two leaders in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry. Amid Logano’s late charge, he continued to trail the lead by eight-tenths of a second, but he was within four-tenths of a second behind Bell while the leader Heim remained ahead of Bell by four-tenths of a second during the final 10-lap mark.
As the laps dwindled, Gilliland, who was in 24th, remained ahead of Blaney, who was 26th and mired behind Allmendinger on the track, for the $1 million bonus for the In-Season Challenge. In addition, Briscoe and Hamlin trailed the lead by more than six seconds and Logano was behind by seven-tenths of a second in third place. Meanwhile, Heim kept the lead by three-tenths of a second over Bell’s No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE entry.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Heim, who fended off a brief move by Bell from the outside lane entering the first turn as Bell tried to execute a pass to the right side of Heim with a strong reel, but lost his momentum, remained in the lead by three-tenths of a second over Bell while Logano trailed in third place. With the latter two unable to reel in the deficit, Heim navigated his way through IMS smoothly for a final time before he streaked back to the frontstretch and won by two-tenths of a second.
With the victory, Heim became the 145th competitor overall to achieve multiple NASCAR Cup Series wins and the first to notch first two career victories within 15 starts since AJ Foyt between 1964-65. The Georgian also became the 21st competitor overall to win a Cup event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the first to record a second Cup career victory in the Brickyard 400 since Jeff Gordon achieved the previous feat during the inaugural event in 1994.
As added bonuses, Heim recorded the 16th Cup Series career victory and a second consecutive Brickyard 400 win for 23XI Racing, with the organization’s No. 67 Toyota team led by veteran crew chief Robert ‘Bootie’ Barker achieving a second win with Heim through eight starts. Heim’s remaining Cup starts of this season with the No. 67 team are at Daytona International Speedway (August 29), Darlington Raceway for the Southern 500 (September 6), Charlotte Motor Speedway (October 11) and the season-finale event at Homestead-Miami Speedway (November 8) before he goes full-time Cup racing with 23XI Racing in 2027.
“That was a damn handful,” Heim said on the frontstretch on TNT Sports. “I was hanging on for dear life once the shade went down and the pace picked up. My car got really loose and I’d never really been in a lot of clean air throughout the day. That was the hardest I’ve ever fought in my life to just make sure I focused on exits and kept [Bell and Logano] in dirty air.”
“I’m pretty out of breath,” Heim added. “That was a workout, but this is a dream come true. Winning at the Brickyard. That is unbelievable. [I] Caught a break early with the pit cycle and just executed all day. Made no mistakes. My pit crew and my team, 23XI [Racing], did a fantastic job of my Field of Stream Camry. First race [with Field of Stream], first win, so hopefully, we can keep it going.”
Christopher Bell, whose previous best result in the Brickyard 400 was fourth, settled in second place while Joey Logano, who made his 15th Brickyard start, settled in third place while coming up nine-tenths of a second shy of winning the event for the first time ever.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be able to get there at all,” Bell said. “My guys were telling me [Heim] was going loose, and I knew that was going to be my only opportunity was going to be a mistake from him. I just needed one bobble. If he would have had one bobble, I was going to be able to get there. He did a great job. He showed excellent mental toughness and put together 35 really good laps, and I didn’t have the opportunity. This is a good second place. We’ve had a lot of bad second-place finishes, but this one is a good one.”
“We’ve been so close to winning here for years now, and it’s great,” Logano added. “You want to be up front at a crown jewel event. We just got there too late. We had good momentum coming into the weekend. I’m proud of the team giving me good race cars. On the last run, we were the winning car. We just have to get there. Just too hard to do it. Just get stuck in the dirty air. Started too far back and scratched and clawed all day to finally have a chance at the end. You’ve got to be on the front row for the final restart at Indy and wasn’t able to be there…Still feel like you have to make the move.”
Teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin settled in fourth and fifth in the final running order after trailing the lead by five and six seconds, respectively. Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Carson Hocevar and Tyler Reddick completed the top 10 in the final running order. Notably, Todd Gilliland achieved the 2026 In-Season Challenge title after finishing in 24th place and being two spots ahead of his final opponent, Ryan Blaney. In addition, Ty Gibbs clinched a Chase berth by finishing in 12th place while Bubba Wallace, the reigning Brickyard 400 winner, settled in 28th place.
The 2026 Brickyard 400 featured 15 lead changes for 11 different leaders, and five cautions for 27 laps. In addition, 31 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 22nd event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Denny Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 84 points over Tyler Reddick, 120 over Ryan Blaney, 135 over Ty Gibbs and 248 over Carson Hocevar.
Results:
- Corey Heim, 58 laps led
- Christopher Bell
- Joey Logano
- Chase Briscoe, one lap led
- Denny Hamlin, 14 laps led
- Brad Keselowski
- Josh Berry, one lap led
- Ryan Preece, one lap led
- Carson Hocevar, 31 laps led
- Tyler Reddick, one lap led
- Chris Buescher
- Ty Gibbs, 46 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Cole Custer
- Austin Cindric
- Zane Smith
- Shane van Gisbergen
- Daniel Suarez, one lap led
- Michael McDowell
- Alex Bowman
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- William Byron
- Noah Gragson
- Ross Chastain, five laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Todd Gilliland
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ryan Blaney
- Erik Jones
- Bubba Wallace
- Austin Dillon
- Ty Dillon
- Cody Ware
- John Hunter Nemechek, two laps down, one lap led
- Austin Hill – OUT, Accident
- Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
- Casey Mears – OUT, Accident
- Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident
- Chase Elliott- 41 laps down
- Daniel Dye – OUT, Accident
- Kyle Larson – OUT, Accident
The NASCAR Cup Series’ teams and competitors enter an off-weekend period before returning to action on August 9 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the Iowa Corn 350. The event’s broadcast time is scheduled to commence at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
