Corey Heim’s Ecosave 250 victory locked him into the Championship Four and gave him the single season victory record for NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series, but with two races remaining in the Round of 8, it’s a crap shoot on who will be the other title contenders at Phoenix.
Only five points separate the other seven drivers. Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Hemric head to Talladega Superspeedway in two weeks tied for second with 3,051 points. Rajah Caruth is next, one point behind Ankrum and Hemric with 3,050. Then comes Lane Riggs at 3,049, Ty Majeski at 3,048, and Grant Enfinger and Kaden Honeycutt with 3,046 each. One week after Talladega, the final race to determine the Championship Four will be Oct. 17 at Martinsville Speedway.
However, Heim won’t be worried about those next two races. His sixth victory in the last seven races and the 21st of his career came in the Truck Series inaugural race on the 2.32-mile, 17-turn Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval. His victory broke the record of nine wins in a single season set by Greg Biffle in 1999 and led TRICON Garage’s first sweep of the top three with Brent Crews and Giovanni Ruggiero finishing second and third, respectively. It also guaranteed Heim a berth in the Championship Four for the third straight year.
However, it was a victory that initially appeared unattainable for Heim after his pole-winning truck was involved in a first turn, first lap incident with Riggs and Enfinger.
“Once the right front was buried in the fence, I thought we were pretty much done,” Heim said. “Pulling off I had all the tire smoke, and it felt pretty funky right away. As far as the backend of the truck, I thought we were OK. But the right front was definitely damaged. I was 90 degrees to the left of my steering. We pitted four times during that caution to try to get the toe back straight, the other things that were bent up out of the front end. The truck literally looks like it did a barrel roll.”
Riggs, who finished 21st, was angry at Enfinger for the first-lap accident.
“We just got wrecked by the 9 (Enfinger). I don’t really understand what his thought process is,” Riggs said after the race that ended in overtime. “People say you’re supposed to take advice from the veterans and learn from them of how to race and they race the worst out of anybody. That’s twice this year we’ve gotten wrecked by the 9 truck — at Watkins Glen and here, both road courses, two separate incidents, two blatantly wrong on his part.”
Riggs said Enfinger called him and apologized for the Watkins Glen incident. He said he wouldn’t do it again and he would “try to give me a little extra help when I need it.”
“This just blew all of that right out of the water,” Riggs said.
Riggs said the first lap accident caused his truck to lose a sway bar and he had a “terrible handling truck the rest of the day.”
“At the end, we were just gonna try to salvage something, but something in the rear end housing broke or a clutch started slipping, but I had no power there at the end,” Riggs said. “The engine was running, but it would not put the power down to the tires.”
Heim’s shot at the victory came when Toni Breidinger’s truck stalled in turn five on lap 65 of the scheduled 67-lap race. Crews was leading at the time and Heim was second. Heim inherited the lead when Crews pitted and then maintained the No. 1 position through the green-white-checker finish.
