Corey Heim claimed lucky win number 13 on Friday evening to lead Team Toyota’s efforts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR
Corey Heim continued his early season success as the Toyota Development Driver scored his second win in the first three NASCAR Truck Series races this season as he drove to victory in a twice rain-delayed race on Friday evening. Heim took the lead for good on lap 102 (of 134) and drove to his first victory at the mile-and-a-half oval. With the win, Heim closes to within five points of the championship lead.
“It feels amazing,” said Heim. “Circumstantially, we had a tough day – I don’t think any of it was our own doing, except what I did myself. Great job by our Safelite Tundra TRD Pro team. TRICON Garage – everyone did such a great job. Everything they could control they kept under control – like I said, a speeding penalty, that was my bad. Nail in our front tire, that was just circumstantial. Very thankful for those guys. Very thankful for Toyota for all of their hard work and support. This is just the beginning. I think we are going to have a really good 2025 campaign, and kicking it off the right way, winning two out of three.”
- Corey Heim
It was also a stellar evening for Tanner Gray has he drove his Tundra TRD Pro to a third-place finish. It was his first top-five of the year, and best run since scoring a third-place finish at Darlington Raceway nearly two years ago.
On Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series race, Christopher Bell’s three-race winning streak came to an end as the Oklahoma-native led Toyota with a 12th-place finish.
“It was a grind today for sure,” said Bell. “I don’t really know how I feel yet, but we certainly didn’t do what we did the last couple of weeks and that was just have a nice clean race. I think the Interstate Camry was definitely capable of competing for the win when we were at our best but just going to the back and to the front and to the back and to the front, we just didn’t get a handle on the balance, because it changes so much from being back there. I felt like we were in position in stage two to contend for another win, but it got away from us.”
- Christopher Bell
In Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, Aric Almirola continued his stellar start to his part-time schedule this season as he finished second after battle with race winner Justin Allgaier. In three starts this season, Almirola has delivered three top-three finishes.
You always hate to finish second, but Justin (Allgaier) and that team was the class of the field I felt like today,” said Almirola. “We were close. They could just take off so much faster than I could. I think that was really the difference. I thought my only hope was to cycle in front of him during the green flag stop. We did, and then I just got caught up behind some lap traffic there that I misjudged. I wasn’t sure which way they were going, and he got by me. Then he just built such a big gap that I used my stuff up trying to get back to him.”
- Aric Almirola
Brandon Jones also delivered another strong run for Joe Gibbs Racing, following up his third-place finish in Phoenix with a sixth-place run this weekend. With the finish, Jones continues to climb back up through the standings with five more spots gained this weekend to 15th overall.
What’s Next
It’s a busy race weekend for Team Toyota as NASCAR’s top three series take on Homestead-Miami Speedway, while ARCA and NHRA are also in action.
The NASCAR racing kicks off on Friday, March 21 with the NASCAR Truck Series at 8:00 p.m. ET on FS1. The NASCAR Xfinity Series follows on Saturday, March 22 at 4:30 p.m. ET on the CW. The NASCAR Cup Series closes the weekend on Sunday, March 23 at 3:00 p.m. ET on FS1.
The ARCA Menards Series East kicks off their season at Five Flags Speedway on Saturday, March 22. FloRacing has the coverage at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Finally, the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series has its second race of the season at Firebird Motorsports Park, just outside of Phoenix. Final eliminations are on Sunday, March 23 at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS1.