Corey Heim and the Tricon Garage team celebrate his record-tying ninth win of the 2025 season at the EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. – Being the “favorite” can be a dangerous position for any driver. Success is expected, and anything short of a championship is framed as a disappointment. But for Corey Heim and his TRICON Garage team made it look easy with a dominant win to close the first round of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs.
Heim put his No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra on the pole to start the Team EJP 175 and swept all three stages, collecting seven playoff points, while also maintaining his momentum as the trucks head into the round of eight, starting October 3 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“Our goal after we won Darlington was to continue to get more playoff points, so to come here and sweep the deal and get seven (playoff points) could potentially mean a lot,” Heim said. “I hope it doesn’t (mean a lot) and we’re easily in, but every single playoff point matters.”
Heim’s dominance started in qualifying, where he picked up his sixth pole of the season. He never looked back, leading 124 of 175 laps. He was challenged by Chandler Smith late, as Smith was fighting for his playoff life. Although he was able to close the gap on Heim in the late going, it wasn’t enough, and he had to settle for second, seeing his championship hopes come to an end.
“I was pushing pretty hard,” Heim said. “I was impressed that his pace kept up with mine. I knew our strong suit was about six laps in and beyond, and I expected to make that gap bigger, but he did a heck of a job keeping up and matching our pace. I think if we got a restart it might have been a little sketchy at that point, but I was going as hard as I could.”
Record Breaking Performance for Heim
Saturday wasn’t just any other win for Heim, but it marked his ninth win of the season, tying Greg Biffle for the most wins in a season all time for the truck series, which Biffle set back in 1999. He said that, while wins are always the goal, the ultimate goal is a championship, and that is what he and the team are focused on.
“I haven’t really thought about it a whole lot yet,” Heim said of tying Biffle’s record. “I think it’s more of a looking back in hindsight thing. You look back & you’re like, ‘Dang. This was an incredible opportunity with an incredible team.’ It’s just something you look back on and think, everything was right.”
As near-perfect as Heim and his Tricon Garage team were on Saturday, they have been just as good for the vast majority of the season, putting him in position of being the favorite for the 2025 championship. He said he has to be careful of those expectations, because he knows fortunes can change on a dime in this sport. But he also has a lot of confidence in himself and his team.
“I think I’ve got enough experience at this point in my career to go out and possibly compete for wins in the truck series, and my team is giving me the equipment necessary to do that,” he said. “It’s a special feeling now, and I’m sure it will be a special feeling when the year is over, regardless of the result. The goal still remains the same, just trying to win a championship.”
Corey Heim tied Greg Biffle’s record with his ninth win of the 2025 season in the EJP 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
Heim Thrives in Return to New Hampshire
After a seven year hiatus, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returned to New Hampshire, and Heim said he felt like the long layoff played to the favor of he and his team, as many teams were trying to figure the place out for the first time.
“The trucks haven’t been here in like seven or eight years now, so I think a lot of people were sort of guessing on set up,” Heim said. “I think from the minute we unloaded yesterday for practice, we knew where we were at and were very close to where we needed to be. We kind of had a leg up on guys with my experience here when most guys have never made a start here.”
While Heim’s fantastic regular season performance, along with his first round effort was more than enough to move him into the second round of the playoffs, he was happy to add the win and playoff points he gained on Saturday. He said the next round, however, is where things can go sideways really quickly.
“We were all confident where we’re at at this place, Bristol and Darlington,” he said. “In the next round it’s got more of an out of your control feel to us, so I think every playoff point will matter a lot more then. So it was definitely important to come here and execute to the best of our ability and get all those playoff points.”
