World Wide Technology Raceway

The early bird got the victory on Saturday afternoon at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

In a long green-flag run to start the final stage of the Toyota 200 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race, Corey Heim brought his No. 11 TRICON Garage Tundra to pit road before any of the other top trucks made green-flag stops, and the move paid off with optimum track position.

Heim held the top spot for a restart on Lap 138 of 160 and led the rest of the way, beating runner-up Christian Eckes to the finish line by 1.854 seconds, earning a $50,000 bonus as the winner of the second leg of the Triple Truck Challenge.

The victory was a welcome turnaround after Heim’s truck was disqualified from second place May 24 at Charlotte for three lug nuts not safe and secure. Heim won for the fourth time this season—all within the last eight races—the second time at Gateway and the ninth time in 53 career starts.

“Total team effort today,” Heim asserted. “We struggled a bit yesterday (in practice and qualifying) and worked a bit overnight on it. I have to say the pit crew redeemed themselves. Last week we could have won the race, and they made some mistakes, but they redeemed themselves today, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Heim started ninth and finished fifth in the first two stages. After a quick pit stop at the Stage 2 break, Heim restarted third on Lap 78 and grabbed the lead before the end of the circuit. He held the top spot until he pitted on Lap 115, one lap earlier than pole winner Ty Majeski who was chasing him in second place.

Vicente Salas’ spin on Lap 129 interrupted the cycle of green-flag stops, but Heim regained the lead on Lap 134 when drivers who had not yet pitted brought their trucks to pit road under the caution. Heim battled Majeski on the Lap 138 restart and prevailed.

“Corey was a little bit better, and I knew it,” said Majeski, who swept the first two stages and led 43 laps to Heim’s race-high 65. “I thought if I could get track position on him, maybe I could hold him off. I threw it into Turn 1, and he cleared me off of 2, and I had a couple other opportunities.

“I got into him a little bit. Probably needed a little bit harder for me to get enough of a run to get side-by-side with him down the back. But, yeah, just a little bit short balance-wise. Sometimes when you’re the best truck in the beginning of the race, you’re gun-shy to make changes.”

Majeski faded to fourth in the final 23 laps, losing positions to Eckes and third-place finisher Nick Sanchez on lap 151.

Eckes lost track position with a slow pit stop in the second stage break, restarted 11th on Lap 78 and finished second at Gateway for the third straight year.

“I definitely feel like we let that one slip,” Eckes said. “Disappointing, for sure… It sucks. I thought we had the best truck here.”

Layne Riggs finished fifth, followed by Chase Purdy, reigning series champion Ben Rhodes and Stewart Friesen. Two drivers making their series debuts—Andrés Pérez de Lara and Luke Fenhaus—came home ninth and 10th, respectively.

Note: The start of the race was delayed for two-and-a-half hours by rain… The final Triple Truck Challenge race is scheduled for June 28 at Nashville Superspeedway. Heim and Sanchez, last week’s Charlotte winner, could collect an additional $100,000 as the winners of two of three events in “The Trip.” A $50,000 bonus is available to all other drivers.

Taking advantage of Ty Majeski’s and Zane Smith’s wreck at the front of the field, Grant Enfinger grabbed his second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season in Saturday’s Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway.

During a two-lap overtime that took the race two laps past its scheduled distance of 160 laps, Enfinger held off Christian Eckes to claim his first win at WWT Raceway and the ninth of his career.

Enfinger crossed the finish line .256 seconds ahead of Eckes and collected a $50,000 bonus for winning the second event in the Triple Truck Challenge.

“I forgot about that, to be honest with you right now,” Enfinger said of the Triple Truck Challenge bonus. “It's just so hard to win these races. And if it was about money, we'd have quit a long time ago... It's been a rocky year. But these last five races, I feel like we've come to our own.

“(Crew chief) Jeff Hensley made great calls and overall just a just a great day, and the stars aligned.”

Enfinger likely would have settled for third place, had Majeski and Smith not wiped out in front on him on Lap 155. Smith held the lead at that point, even though he had made his last pit stop on Lap 90.

On older tires, Smith held an advantage of nearly 1.5 seconds when Lawless Alan’s spin on Lap 150 necessitated the 10th caution of the race.

After the subsequent restart on Lap 155, Majeski, the pole winner, charged into second place and ran side by side with Smith until Majeski spun sideways in Turn 2, destroyed his own truck and knocked Smith into the wall in the process.

The wreck sent the race to the overtime, with Enfinger in the lead and Eckes beside him for a restart on Lap 161. Enfinger cleared Eckes on the first overtime lap and pulled away to win by a truck-length.

“I don't know if we were just kind of living right there the end or whatever, but Ty kind of did what I did last year… and Ty just got loose underneath him. It's hard to make those moves here. But I'm just so proud of these guys…

“It’s as good as time as they need to announce that we're expecting another baby, so I'll be home tonight to see (my wife), so life is good.”

Stewart Friesen ran third, followed by Carson Hocevar and Chase Purdy. Matt DiBenedetto, Ben Rhodes, Nick Sanchez, Jesse Love and Jake Garcia completed the top 10.

Love was making his first start in the series, substituting for Corey Heim, who was sidelined by illness.

Pole winner Corey Heim lost the lead on Lap 18 of Saturday’s Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. 

He didn’t regain it until the first lap of overtime, when frontrunner Christian Eckes spun his tires on a restart on Lap 164.

But that was enough for Heim to score his second NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory of the season in a part-time role in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota. 

Eckes was leading comfortably with just over two laps left in regulation when Tanner Gray spun in Turn 3 to cause the 10^th caution of the race. Eckes chose the outside lane for the overtime restart, with second-place Derek Kraus lining up behind him. 

That opened the bottom row for Heim, who lined up to the inside of Eckes and surged into the lead when Eckes’ No. 98 Toyota failed to launch. 

After taking the white flag, Heim got the win when a four-car wreck in Turn 2 brought out the 11^th caution and froze the field. 

“I can’t believe I got the bottom right there—that’s unbelievable,” said Heim, who picked up his second career win in his 12^th start in the series. “A great push from my teammate Chandler Smith right there…” 

Smith finished third behind Heim and Eckes after leading twice for 40 laps. Stewart Friesen came home fourth, followed by former series champion Johnny Sauter who scored his second straight top-five finish in his third start of the year. 

It took a succession of bizarre circumstances to give Heim the window of opportunity he needed. On Lap 54, pre-race favorite John Hunter Nemechek, who entered the race as the series leader, spun in Turn 4 while trying an aggressive inside move on Friesen. 

With his Toyota damaged beyond repair, Nemechek dropped out of the race. 

“That was on me,” Nemechek said. “I put myself in a vulnerable spot.” 

Eight laps after Nemechek’s wreck, Grant Enfinger spun while battling Chandler Smith for the lead, and both trucks slid sideways in tandem, with Enfinger suffering the bulk of the damage. 

During a two-lap shootout at the end of Stage 2, Friesen, who had been running consistently in the top five, suffered a flat tire after contact from Hailie Deegan’s Ford and expressed his displeasure by crowding Deegan toward the apron. 

On Lap 102, three-time 2022 winner Zane Smith fell off the pace with a flat tire after contact from Carson Hocevar’s Chevrolet. He recovered to finish ninth.

That left Eckes, Kraus and Heim to battle for the lead late in the race. Eckes passed Kraus for the top spot on Lap 154 of a scheduled 160 and appeared bound for victory until the overtime scrambled the finishing order. 

“It’s really frustrating,” Eckes said. “The last three weeks, we should have won, but we didn’t. So we’ll go back to the drawing board and try to figure something out.” 

Matt DiBenedetto ran sixth, followed by Kraus, Ben Rhodes, Zane Smith and Chase Purdy. Rajah Caruth finished 11^th in his series debut. Rhodes regained the series lead by 17 points over Chandler Smith. 

Toyota’s sweep of the top five was its sixth in Truck Series history. The first such sweep occurred at Gateway in 2006.

Hocevar, who was involved in the wreck that ended the race under caution, was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.