Despite a late-race challenge from NASCAR Cup Series regular Zane Smith, Corey Heim held on to win the Heart of America 200 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night.
Heim led 79 of 134 laps in the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota en route to his second NASCAR Truck Series victory of the season. The 21-year-old will also be racing in Sunday’s Cup Series race at the helm of the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota as a substitute driver for Erik Jones.
“I can’t say enough about these guys at TRICON Garage, man,” said Heim, who has finished in the top 10 in all eight Truck Series races this season. “Top to bottom, we executed so well today with the pit crew, everyone back at the shop…What a truck! It was free for most of the race, so I can’t say it was easy. Even with the balance I had, the truck had so much potential to get better.
“I’m kind of out of breath now — it was a handful those last 30 laps.”
Despite his second-place finish, Smith was disappointed with the result. After winning the second stage, Smith lost seven positions thanks to a slow stop under caution on pit road and couldn’t catch Heim to challenge for the win.
He closed on Heim over the final 10 laps but ran was still 1.088 seconds in arrears when Heim crossed the finish line.
“You can’t lose (seven) spots on pit road,” said Smith, who was making his fourth start of the season in the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Chevrolet. “That one got away there.”
Christian Eckes finished third, followed by Kaden Honeycutt, whose fourth-place run was a career-best. Brett Moffitt, the 2018 series champion, came home fifth in his first start of the season.
“These guys at TRICON Garage brought me a great truck tonight. We struggled for track position early, which put us in a hole late. Then, I feel like we had a mishap on the last, stage three restart. We finally got track position, but lost some and went back. I don’t know if we could’ve gotten up to third or fourth, and if we would have had anything for the 91 (Zane Smith) or 11 (Corey Heim), but we were really good. It was fun to race with them and look forward to more,” Moffitt said.
Sanchez was sixth after starting from the rear of the field after his No. 2 Chevrolet failed pre-race inspection three times.
Tanner Gray, Dean Thompson, Daniel Dye and Matt Crafton completed the top 10.