Corey Heim added to his growing list of accolades with his first Daytona win in NASCAR, as the Toyota Development Driver wins first points paying race under the Toyota GAZOO Racing banner.
NASCAR
Corey Heim looked headed towards his second-consecutive runner-up finish in the season opening Truck Series race, but after the original winner, Parker Kligerman, failed post-race inspection, Heim was elevated to the win. For the Toyota Development Driver, it is his 12th career Truck Series win and clinches his spot in the Playoffs for the third consecutive season.
“Well, it is my first time having this kind of scenario happening either way, so certainly glad to be on the right side of it,” said Heim. “It sucks for Parker (Kligerman) and those guys. It seemed like they put themselves in a position at the right time to win the race, but obviously, there is another level to it after the race. Grateful to be in the spot to take advantage of that. Huge props to everyone at TRICON Garage, Toyota, Safelite – first win under the Toyota GAZOO Racing banner, so that is cool. We will move to Atlanta and try to get another one.”
- Corey Heim
Heim’s teammate, Gio Ruggiero, had an incredibly impressive Truck Series debut as the 18-year-old led 11 laps and finished second – helping TRICON Garage start the season with a 1-2 finish. William Sawalich also had a strong top-10 finish in his Daytona Truck Series debut.
Tyler Reddick led four Toyotas across the finish line in positions two-through-five in Sunday’s rain-delayed Daytona 500. Last season’s Championship 4 driver was able to avoid Denny Hamlin’s spinning Camry on the final lap to earn a career-best Daytona 500 finish. Reddick’s teammate, Bubba Wallace, also had a memorable weekend as he earned his first Duel win on Thursday.
“When they started to spin on the dogleg, I kind of jumped out of line thinking that was going to be it, and we just kept going,” said Reddick. “I knew that me and the 24 (William Byron) had a good run and they were throwing big blocks, and when they started spinning on the inside and I had a run on the 24, I thought, man, if I can just make it through on the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and not scrub my speed, I would have had at least an opportunity to do something. All in all, I never really finished a race here unless it was 40 laps down, so I'll take second. We wanted to get a good start to the year, and we scored a lot of points today. So, I'm really happy with everyone's effort on this No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry.”
- Tyler Reddick
LEGACY MOTOR CLUB had a career-night as Jimmie Johnson (third) and John Hunter Nemechek (fifth) helped the team score two top-five finishes in the same race for the first time. For Johnson, it is his best-ever finish in the Next Gen car, while Nemechek earned his first career Cup Series top-five run.
After earning Toyota’s first Daytona 500 pole on Wednesday, Chase Briscoe (fourth) led the Joe Gibbs Racing quartet on Sunday, earning his first top-five in his first points-paying race for the team.
On Saturday, Taylor Gray and Dean Thompson kicked off their rookie seasons in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in fine fashion. Gray (fifth) earned his third top-five finish in his young career, while Thompson (eighth) scored his first top-10 finish in his third Xfinity Series race. Thompson had a strong run throughout the race – scoring points in both stages. The California-native is third in the point standings leaving Daytona, which is the highest a Sam Hunt Racing entry has ever ranked.
“I just pushed him too far out there for him to be able to get clear of the bottom and kind of got myself in a little bit of a trap,” said Gray. “Then, I was able to pick up some good help behind me in search for it there. I can’t thank all my Joe Gibbs Racing guys enough. They brought me a really fast Operation 300 GR Supra. Just got to keep going, keep working, building momentum. It’s a long year.”
- Taylor Gray
ARCA
William Sawalich led Toyota with a runner-up finish in an incident-filled ARCA Menards Series race on Saturday afternoon, which was won by Brenden Queen. The other five Toyota-supported entries – Lawless Alan, Amber Balcaen, Jake Finch, Thad Moffitt and Isabella Robusto – all were involved in various incidents throughout the 80-lap race.
What’s Next
NASCAR is back to another superspeedway style race next weekend as they compete at Atlanta Motor Speedway. There is a double-header on Saturday, February 22 with NASCAR Truck Series action at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series on the CW at 5:00 p.m. ET. The NASCAR Cup Series closes the weekend on Sunday, February 23 on FOX at 3:00 p.m. ET.