Corey Heim during the Boys and Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
RIDGEWAY, Va. — After another dominating performance by Corey Heim in Friday night’s Boys and Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200 at Martinsville Speedway, lady luck was not on his side for a second straight week.
Heim swept the stages and led a race-high 149 laps before a late race restart, which ultimately ended his chances of scoring his third victory of the season.
On Lap 166, he and Kaden Honeycutt made contact while battling for the lead, which led to Heim cutting a left rear tire and spinning out in Turn 1.
Despite losing all of his track position late in the race, Heim was still able to charge back to finish in sixth place, but just didn’t have enough laps remaining to catch the leader and eventual winner, Daniel Hemric.
“A lot of frustration, of course,” Heim said post-race. “I just feel like we got used up there a little bit.”
Corey Heim (No. 11) racing with Ty Majeski (No. 98) and Kaden Honeycutt (No. 45) battling close behind at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
When looking back on the incident, Heim didn’t think Honeycutt did anything too crazy or that what he did was intentional to cut down his left rear tire, but it doesn’t change the fact that it did cut his tire down, costing him the shot at the win.
“I don’t think he (Honeycutt) intended to cut my left rear (tire) down, I think if he wanted to do that, he would’ve just wrecked me as it is,” he said. “It wasn’t anything malicious, but I guess I would’ve liked to have been cut a break in hindsight. I think if he knew he was going to cut down left rear, he probably wouldn’t have done it, but it doesn’t stop me from being pretty frustrated at him to begin with.”
This is now the second consecutive week Heim has dominated the race and was unable to win the race due to a late race problem.
Last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he also swept both stages before the truck kept shutting on and off in the final laps, relegating him to a third-place finish.
Corey Heim at Martinsville Speedway during the Boys and Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200. (Photo: Sydney Redden | The Podium Finish)
Even with the disappointing finishes in back-to-back weeks, Heim and his No. 11 team have been on a heater to start the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. The result was the fourth top 10 in just five races for Heim thus far and he has now lead 276 laps on the season, over 100 more than the next closest full-time competitor in the series.
The series now has a few off weeks until their next race at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Heim will look to continue his fast start to the season and return to Victory Lane.
“This Mobil 1 Tundra was really good today, (I) just needed a better restart, I guess,” Heim said.
