Corey Heim advanced to the NASCAR Truck Series Championship 4 for the second straight season on the strength of a top-10 finish at Martinsville Speedway on Friday night. The Toyota Development Driver leads the series overall with six victories and clinched his spot at the checkered flag with a seventh-place finish.
Fellow Toyota Playoff driver Taylor Gray was battling for the win in the final 10 laps after a great pit strategy call. He had taken the lead before eventual race winner Christian Eckes moved Gray’s Tundra. Gray finished fourth to lead Toyota in the evening’s race. With the finish, Gray finished the round of 8 in fifth position – one spot out of advancing to the Championship 4.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Race 22 of 23 – 200 Laps, 105.2 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Christian Eckes*
2nd, Ben Rhodes*
3rd, Chase Purdy*
4th, TAYLOR GRAY
5th, Nick Sanchez
7th, COREY HEIM
10th, STEWART FRIESEN
14th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
17th, DEAN THOMPSON
21st, TIMMY HILL
25th, JUSTIN CARROLL
29th, TANNER GRAY
35th, LANDEN LEWIS
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TAYLOR GRAY, No. 17 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 4th
What happened?
“Raced 19 (Christian Eckes) clean into (turns) one and two on the restart and times before that. I was on tires. I barely even touched him. Drove underneath him, and the caution came out. So clean for Martinsville, especially for the tire advantage. I could have drove into (turn) one and shipped him completely out of the way and not be worried about it. I raced him clean. I didn’t want to be that guy at Martinsville. We go on the restart, and raced him clean through (turns) one and two. Clear him off of (turn) two, and he goes into (turn) three and completely ships me to the fence. Now granted, it is Martinsville, I was expecting to get moved – I wasn’t expecting to get moved to the fence. Especially, with how I raced him, and he is locked into the final four, so I don’t know. The only thing he did was put a target on his back, and unfortunately, and this day and age I can’t go to Phoenix and do anything about to him, because I’m going to go get a $20,000 fine, so he gets away with that crap and doesn’t get any repercussion.”
Is there anything more you could have done besides running him into the fence?
“I don’t know. The 19 (Christian Eckes) was the class of the field, right? But it is not my fault we had better strategy than he did. We came out on tires, we drove through the field and we drove to him. I raced him clean, and he drove me in the fence. I guess the only thing I could have done is wreck him like he wrecked me.”
COREY HEIM, No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 7th
What more did you need?
“Really thankful for everyone at Safelite, TRICON Garage and Toyota Racing. Our regular season bonus points really propelled us to an easy, kind of under the radar day here at Martinsville. We had such a great regular season, and that led us to kind of have a relaxing last round here. It is still so stressful at times with the possibilty of a new winner and the headache of math that goes on there. Just didn’t quite have the speed. Rode around in the top-10 most of the day, but winning here last year, kind of had our expectations high to come back and do the same thing, and fell short of that day today, but the ultimate goal is to win a championship next week and that is what we are going to try and go do.”
Golin for Toyota Racing PR
