Corey Heim came up just short of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series title, finishing runner-up in Friday night’s season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Heim won the first stage, led 16 laps in the TRICON Garage No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro and worked his way back up through the field after a mid-race restart violation to finish second to race-winner Ty Majeski. The Toyota Development Driver finishes the 2024 season with a series and career-best six victories.
TRICON Garage teammate Taylor Gray also earned a top-10 result in Friday’s race with a sixth-place result at the one-mile Arizona oval.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Phoenix Raceway
Race 23 of 23 – 150 Laps, 150 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Ty Majeski*
2nd, COREY HEIM
3rd, Christian Eckes*
4th, Nick Sanchez*
5th, Grant Enfinger*
6th, TAYLOR GRAY
11th, TANNER GRAY
15th, DEAN THOMPSON
18th, STEWART FRIESEN
22nd, TIMMY HILL
32nd, WILLIAM SAWALICH
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
COREY HEIM, No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 2nd
What are your thoughts on the night?
“I think the story of the night was no one had anything for the 98 (Ty Majeski). They were above average all year, and then they show up to Phoenix and completely tore us up. I drove my guts out and did everything I could. I made a mistake getting out of line, but I drove back to the front and had another shot at him, but he just had two tenths in the bag at any point. I would go 110 percent and he was still two tenths faster than me. There is not much you can do about that. I feel like this is the best Safelite Tundra TRD Pro that we’ve had all year – even better than we dominated with, and we still had nothing for him. It is hard to be upset by that, just don’t know what I could have done better. Nothing to hang our heads about there. We had a great season in our TRICON Garage camp. We set career highs at pretty much everything we possibly could of for myself and the team and as an organization. Huge thank you to them and everyone at Toyota Racing and Safelite for all of their efforts. It sucks to come up short – we were the best truck all year, us and the 19 (Christian Eckes) and just got our ass kicked. It is what it is.”
Does it make it easier because you ran as hard as you did and still came up short?
“Honestly, the penalty was brutal at first, but we were able to tear our way up through there and get back up to third in two restarts. Really didn’t do too much damage, except maybe a little bit to the tires, but when you are two tenths off of the 98 (Ty Majeski), you need a little more than a little tire to make it work, I mean, you saw the 19 (Christian Eckes) – we were still better than the 19 on 10 lap older tires, and he was still another two tenths faster than us. I don’t know. I drove super hard. I gave him fits at points, but he was in another zip code all night.”
How concerned were you when you went back?
“I would be lying to you if I didn’t say I thought it would be a lot harder than it was. I was just able to choose the right lanes and get good runs on restarts and kind of get my way through there, quicker than I thought I was going to – I don’t know. I just got right back behind the 98 (Ty Majeski) and didn’t have anything for him.”
WILLIAM SAWALICH, No. 1 Starkey/Soundgear Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 32nd
What happened to take you out of the race early?
“It was just tight close racing, which is what you expect here at Phoenix. We had a really fast Starkey, Soundgear Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. I can’t thank the guys enough at TRICON. We were coming back through the field. We started in a little bit of a hole due to qualifying. We just weren’t too fast. I don’t know what place we were in the time, but we were making good progress. It sucks what happened. My guys don’t deserve that.”
Could you have done anything?
“I think I was four-wide or three-wide on the top. I think the 7 (Connor Mosack) – I don’t know what was going on with him. I was kind of just wedged in there, and had nowhere to go, and as soon as I tried to check up, I got hit and then hit the 18 (Tyler Ankrum) and kind of went all over the place. I did what I can.”
How do you feel about your third Xfinity start tomorrow?
“I feel really good. We were really fast in practice, so super excited about that. Final race of the year with those guys, and then got next year to look forward to. Can’t thank everyone enough, and hopefully it is a good day tomorrow.”
Golin for Toyota Racing PR
