Corey Heim Is Emerging As A Top Nascar Prospect With Toyota Racing Development

Corey Heim, driver of the No. 11 Safelite Toyota, reacts after winning the weather-shortened … [+] Craftsman Truck Series Long John Silver’s 200 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

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Toyota Racing Development has a long history of developing winners in Nascar. Since the Japanese OEM entered the sport in 2004, it has placed an emphasis on its development program for young drivers.

Corey Heim is the latest driver to make waves with Toyota, competing full time in the Craftsman Truck Series for Tricon Garage this season. The move to Tricon was unexpected, as he assumed he’d return to Kyle Busch Motorsports, a team that he won two races with in 2022. But when Busch signed with Chevrolet and Richard Childress Racing last September, Toyota made sure Heim secured a top ride.

“It’s been different,” Heim said of joining Tricon Garage, which joined the Toyota camp over the offseason after running Fords. “Coming from KBM last year, it’s a different kind of vibe. KBM is very oriented in what they’ve been successful with in the past. Tricon is more innovative and they’ve very open to change just because the last couple of years haven’t been as good as they wanted it to be.

“With [crew chief] Scott Zippadeli coming in from Hattori [Racing Enterprises], having a lot of success, they’ve been open to what he wants to do and the changes he wants to make. They’ve been good so far. I like how open they are.”

Through the first 11 races of the Truck Series season, Heim has picked up a win at Martinsville Speedway and he’s led laps in each of his last five events.

Though Heim missed the series’ most recent race at World Wide Technology Raceway due to an illness, he has emerged as one of the championship favorites with his No. 11 team. He currently sits atop of the regular season standings by a comfortable 26 points over Ty Majeski.

“It’s just being open and innovative,” Heim said. “KBM brought really fast trucks, but we just ran the same from the start to the end of the year. We were fast and in contention, but we never went out and dominated a race. With Tricon, they’ve been innovative and they’ve made changes to become a championship-caliber team.

“We’re making changes every week. I’ve learned to like that and enjoy the fact that you don’t know what you’re going to have. Everyone is investing the time and effort into it, and everyone hopes it’ll be good. Nine times out of 10, it has been good.”

Heim is backed by Safelite, a longtime Toyota and KBM partner. JBL, another Toyota partner, also sponsored his truck at Circuit of the Americas.

Heim is now considered to be the leader at Tricon Garage, a team that was previously known as David Gilliland Racing and DGR-Crosley. Led by veteran racer David Gilliland, who competed at Charlotte Motor Speedway last month, the organization moved from Ford to Toyota after Busch’s swap to Chevrolet. And Heim is using Gilliland’s vast knowledge of Nascar racing to understand what he needs to do to succeed.

“He’s very in tune with what we’re doing,” Heim said of Gilliland. “He still steps foot in the truck and he did so this year at Charlotte. That helps him understand what other drivers are doing, and how he can coach us and improve our team on a weekly basis. He’s worked with Cup-level talents like Ryan Preece. Being able to hone in on that and understand what made them successful, he can go back to younger drivers like me at Tricon and understand what makes a successful driver.”

Besides the full Truck Series slate, Heim is getting his feet wet in the Nascar Xfinity Series with Sam Hunt Racing. The 20-year-old made his debut at Dover Motor Speedway and got into trouble with Parker Kligerman, who’s attempting to qualify for the playoffs.

But after looking back and learning from his mistake, Heim had a clean second start at Darlington. He finished 10th in SHR’s No. 24 car, placing in the top 10 alongside the team’s full-time driver, Kaz Grala. It was the first time Hunt put two cars inside the top 10 in team history.

“It’s been a wake-up call for me a little bit,” Heim said. “It’s not that I’m lacking anything on the preparation side or anything like that, but it’s so much different than the truck and I didn’t really understand that. When I’m watching it, I expected it to be different, but it’s a lot different.

“Xfinity racing has brought more longer runs and more dynamic racing. With the trucks, we struggle to have long runs because of the short stages or there’s a lot of cautions. It’s fun to move around [the track] and see where everything trended. I feel like I learned more in my first two starts than I have in any other two starts that I can narrow down.”

Now, as Heim gets more track time and earns respect in both garages, he’s focused on taking home the Truck Series championship trophy at the end of the year. If he can do so, it’ll be the second time in three years that a Toyota driver won the title.

“I just want to keep improving and keep learning,” he said.

The Truck Series hits the track next on June 23 at Nashville Superspeedway for the Rackley Roofing 200 on FS1.