Corey Heim's past and future intersects with Trucks title

Ray Heim was losing his figurative s–t watching the NASCAR Truck Series Championship Race from the infield but his son remained resolute through it all.

The Tricon Garage No. 11 team was not going to lose this race and championship on a caution with five laps to go because Connor Mosack did not pit to address his tire rub. They were not going to lose it to those who took two tires when Scott Zipadelli called for four at the expense of nine spots.

Heim the Younger, like he has all season, got up on the steering and simply drove from ninth to second in one corner, finishing the job on the next restart after a caution that also nearly clinched a repeat championship for Ty Majeski.

Watch: Seven-wide! Heim goes from 10th to second on overtime restart

Simply put, he would not be denied.

“Honestly, I mean, yeah, I had a lot of thoughts brewing in the back of my head about just how terrible the end of the race could have gone for us there, starting 10th on fresh tires with 10 to go,” Corey said.

“I was completely determined to make sure that we had a shot at it at the end of the day. I’m not going to say I’m going to go and wreck by any means but I drove into 3 on the inside wall there as hard as I could. It stuck thankfully. If not, we would have probably wrecked about 20 of ’em.

“I was so determined to make up for it. Scott did the right thing. He put us on four tires at the end there. I didn’t think we’d be that much better than everyone else, being able to drive around the inside wall, take all those spots. Certainly we did the right thing. That’s why we were in Victory Lane.”

His dad, however, was riding the emotional rollercoaster.

“I absolutely, 100 percent, thought we had lost it,” Ray said. “But I will tell you what, as soon as he picked the bottom, I 100 percent knew what he was going to do. I can’t tell you I knew it was going to work but I knew what he was going to do.”

He just didn’t know the seas would part in just the right way.

“Right, right, right,” Ray said emphatically. “I mean, he made the same move last year, and it was a different situation, but I knew what he was going to do and it was just a matter if someone else was going to do it too, but he squirted out the other side, and when he came out second, I said ‘oh, it’s on.’

Had the caution not came out, Heim probably beats the clean Majeski in a straight up race. If the caution comes out two seconds later, Majeski is declared the winner under caution. Instead, the caution allowed Heim to just drive away on his fresh tires to his record-extending 12th win and all the other accolades that a championship cements.

But again, his dad felt really low, before feeling really high.

“My dad’s investing pretty much every dime he’s got into my racing career, hoping I can latch onto a manufacturer, get some support there to allow me to full-time race,” Corey said.

“Took a chance to go to Venturini Motorsports in 2020 and run a seven-race schedule and did some Late Models on the side. If you run seven ARCA races, you’re not really in a running to be in a full-time truck at some point.

“It was kind of the breaking point for me, honestly. I was able to win Kansas. I think it was my last race of the year. Get a full-time opportunity with Venturini and Toyota the next year. Go out and have a really good year. Set myself up for success going forward.”

So it begs the question, after winning this championship, why isn’t Heim set to race somewhere full-time next year?

There are a lot of moving parts. He is a 23XI contracted development driver. For some reason, Heim is not part of the Joe Gibbs Racing family of Toyota drivers. Whatever Xfinity starts he makes tends to be with Sam Hunt Racing.

But more than anything, Toyota Racing president Tyler Gibbs (no relation) says Heim is now a Cup caliber driver and whatever resources goes towards racing will go towards doing it on Sunday.

That is where he is expected to make a lot of starts next season, the results of the 23XI litigation against NASCAR, notwithstanding.

“I think we are ready for him to go to Cup,” Gibbs said. “He is ready to go to the Cup Series. We have seen that maturity over the years. But listen, if there was an opportunity to go full-time in Xfinity that made sense, we wouldn’t say no out of hand.

“But Corey is 23, whereas some other prospects are 19, 20, 21, and we just see a different kind of driver. Look at how he raced tonight compared to a couple of years ago. He has the same speed, he has never lacked for speed, but just the maturity is on a Sunday scale.

“So if we had the opportunity and if it made sense, maybe, but he is going to get some good experience next year and we are very interested in seeing how it works out with 23XI. They’ve got the perfect program for where he is at this point and time.”

And wherever that journey takes them, Ray Heim is going to live and die figuratively with every moment too.

“Oh my, I wouldn’t trade this for the world,” Ray said. “I didn’t. I have been to basically every race and want to do it as long as I can. It’s been a hell of a journey and it’s been so much fun to watch him.

“I’m biased, obviously, but he is the most exciting driver in NASCAR. I watch what he does and I shake my head in disbelief. He’s amazing and this is incredible.”