Corey Heim wins 2025 NASCAR Truck title after fearless seven-wide pass

Corey Heim entered this race as the overwhelming favorite for the title, but the format meant he had to perform at Phoenix or face losing the title despite a historic season. 

He won both stages and led the most laps, but when the race fell into double overtime, he had to fight with everything he had to win the title. Coming from tenth on a two-to-go restart, he drove up to second with a seven-wide pass before ultimately defeating Ty Majeski for the win and the championship.

“So grateful to be where I’m at,” smiled a relieved Heim. “So thankful for TRICON Garage, and Toyota for taking a chance on me years ago … I was so stressed out ever since we won at the Roval, because I knew we’d have to defend this with the year we’ve been having. I’ve been so terrible to talk to as a person. Just so stressed out. This is such a relief. So thankful for everybody.”

Kaden Honeycutt finished third, also ending the year third in the championship standings. Layne Riggs finished fourth and Rajah Caruth fifth. Jake Garcia, Corey LaJoie, Chandler Smith, Tyler Reif, and Jack Wood filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Tyler Ankrum ended up fourth in the final standings after finishing 14th, and taking damage in a late-race wreck.

Heim will end the year with 12 wins, 19 top fives, and 21 top tens in 25 races. He also managed to lead laps in every single race this year, which has never been done before in any of the three national divisions.

Stages 1 and 2

At the start, Honeycutt jumped from fifth to second on the start, but upon review, NASCAR deemed that he had moved out of line before the start/finish line.

The penalty would have been a drive-through, but a quick caution meant he had to go to the rear of the field.

The caution was for a fairly significant wreck involving Daniel Hemric and Dawson Sutton in the first corner of the race.

Chandler Smith led the way, but Heim quickly ran him down. The two trucks nearly collided as Heim tried to pass him on the outside, only to get pinched and forced to lift.

He eventually got the pass done halfway through the stage, while Smith went to pit road for an unscheduled pit stop.

Heim went on to win the stage, followed by Crews and title rival Majeski. Honeycutt made up for that early penalty, driving from the back to seventh, while Ankrum was back in 14th.

Heim lost the lead on pit road as he struggled to find grip while pulling out of his stall. That cost him the lead, but he quickly got it back.

Heim dominated the second stage over Majeski and Crews, with Honeycutt fourth and Ankrum slipping even deeper into the field — now 17th.

Stage 3

The problematic pit box continued to plague Heim, as he again spun the tires and lost the lead. This gave the advantage to Majeski, but Heim managed to reclaim the top spot on the restart.

He wanted the race to remain green, but of course, a spin triggered the next caution — this one by Clayton Green. Riggs, who was still in contention for the owner’s title, led a group of drivers that chose to pit for fresh rubber.

The restart came with 33 laps to go, and Riggs restarted back in ninth. However, all the final four drivers chose to stay out and remained on the same strategy. Brent Crews rapidly fell back through the field with a broken rear axle, removing Heim’s teammate and wingman from contention.

Riggs immediately drove up to fourth before a massive crash in the middle of the field. Andres Perez went airborne as he slammed the wall, collecting Ben Rhodes, Gio Ruggiero, and Bayley Currey.

The resulting cleanup forced a brief red flag. On the restart, the frontrunners could do little to stop Riggs as he moved into the race lead, putting FRM in position to win the owner’s title.

Heim had to keep pushing as Majeski remained close to him in the fight for the driver’s crown. 

It looked like the battle was over with Riggs taking the win and the owner’s crown for FRM, while Heim held on to the driver’s title…and then there was a caution.

Connor Mosack stayed out with a tire rub and crashed, pushing the race into overtime.

Everyone dove to pit road for fresh tires, and while his rivals opted for two, Heim decided to bite the bullet and take four. It dropped him back to tenth for a mad dash to the finish, with two trucks staying out.

The field fanned out seven-wide for the race lead with Heim making an unbelievable surge up to second, directly behind Majeski.

A wreck in the back of the pack collected Championship 4 driver Ankrum, and pushed the race into double overtime. There was another red flag for cleanup, and Heim parked his truck right next to the door of Majeski.

With the tire advantage, there was no stopping him as Heim powered into the race lead, and never looked back.

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– The Motorsport.com Team