Corey Heim continued to impress in his first full time season as he won his second race of the season – and fourth of his career – at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday afternoon. Heim, the pole sitter, battled through both wet and dry conditions to earn the victory. The 22-year-old Toyota development driver extended his points advantage to 26 points with two races to go in the regular season after leading a race-high 31 of 67 laps. Stewart Friesen (fourth) also had a strong run as he closed to within one point of the Playoff field heading into the series’ next race at Pocono Raceway.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Race 14 of 23 – 67 Laps, 151.28 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, COREY HEIM
2nd, Zane Smith*
3rd, Christian Eckes*
4th, STEWART FRIESEN
5th, Ben Rhodes*
10th, TYLER ANKRUM
15th, TAYLOR GRAY
20th, TANNER GRAY
21st, TIMMY HILL
23rd, RYAN VARGAS
27th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
33rd, DEAN THOMPSON
35th, DALE QUARTERLEY
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
COREY HEIM, No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 1st
What a day, can you talk about this win?
“Yeah, just unbelievable. We came here with high expectations – I felt like I did a good job to stay up front last year, but I put in the work to go from a third-place truck to a winning truck. This Safelite Tundra TRD Pro was every bit of that today. Huge thank you to TRICON Garage, David Gilliland, Shane Gray and the Gray family – I appreicate everyone over there. Scott Zipadelli (crew chief) and everyone on the team for everything they do and everyone at Toyota Racing. Just unbelievable. This Tundra was really good ever since we unloaded – we were the fastest truck in practice, qualified on the pole and came here and won the race. Huge thanks to Zane (Smith) and Christian (Eckes) – I knew they would race me clean as usual – but a huge thanks to them again. Just unbelievable – awesome. Hats off to everybody.”
Can you walk us through your race from your perspective?
From my perspective, I knew that my Tundra TRD Pro was really good in the dry conditions and if I was ride around when it was wet and not overstep and lose the track position we had from the start, I knew we would be in a good position when we ended the race in the dry. That was the case. Thankfully, I made minimal mistakes – I made a couple that cost me a few spots but nothing that was chastrophic for our finish. We were able to keep that top-five track position and sure enough, when it dried out, we were the fastest track and we were able to drive to the front. I owe a big thanks to Toyota Racing, TRICON Garage and Safelite for everything they do – TRD for allowing me to get as much practice as I could before the start of this race. I certainly needed it and it paid off.”
Had this race stayed wet, do you feel as confident as you would have in the dry?
“I would definitely say I would have been a lot more confidence in the dry with how fast we were in practice and qualifying and getting the pole. I think I could have pushed it a little harder in the wet. The ThorSport trucks were just really, really good when it was really damp out. The more dry it got, the more they fell off. I don’t know if that is an experience thing on their part with racing in the rain – they have a lot of laps in the Trucks – but yeah, once it got dry out there, they faded a little. I was for sure a lot more confident in the dry.”
Can you walk me through that last restart?
“Zane (Smith) and Christian (Eckes) are good buddies of mine and they’ve always raced me with a lot of respect throughout my career, so I wasn’t worried about them driving through me – where there is some people in trucks that will do that – but those two are not in that category. I had a lot of confidence that I could run my line and hit my braking points with worrying about them going through me and costing me a good finish. It definitely gave me a little bit of confidence to trust them and what they do. We’ve raced clean during the 2023 season and hoepfully beyond – I feel like there is always a chance of that with all of the hard braking zones we have that someone could have slipped up but those two guys are some of those that I trust more than others.”
Can you talk about the work you’ve put in to move from a third-place truck to a winner today?
“Yeah, I think I was refering mostly to this race. Last year, we were able to qualify here on the pole in the wet, and the truck just wasn’t as good in the dry. I want to be a winning driver week-in and week-out. I feel like last year I was capable of that most places, but road courses wasn’t it. To be able to work with Toyota Racing, TRD and get some simulator time and personal studying in the long offseason we had and early breaks in the season, just preparing for COTA and having a decent race there and knowing Mid-Ohio, a place that I’ve been to before was a really good opportunity for us to get our second win, and sure enough we are here in victory lane.”
Can you describe the conditions at the beginning of the race/?
“For me, it was a lot more slick than last year. I don’t know if that was setup induced – I think that the ThorSport trucks were just able to carry a lot of center speed, us not so much. As I mentioned earlier, I think it may be an experience thing on their part – they were really disciplined and the 98 (Ty Majeski) was driving really hard, but I feel like he was never really overstepping the track. I’ve got work on wet racing a little bit, but I knew once it dried off if I stayed disciplined and stay in the top-five, that we were the best truck. Our Safelite Tundra TRD Pro was great and hats off to TRICON Garage and Toyota Racing.”
STEWART FRIESEN, No. 52 Halmar International Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, Halmar Friesen Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Your team thought you could be the story of the day. Can you talk about your run to the top-five?
“I don’t know who said that – but they were pretty confident – more than I was for sure. I saw it start raining and I thought, oh man – we’ve just really struggled in the wet. But I think we have figured something out, it actually raced pretty good in the wet. Starting in the back, helped I think. I could just take my time and ease on through. Zane (Smith) and I were kind of just picking our way through – we got to race with (Marco) Andretti and Conor Daly – which was pretty dran cool in the rain. Two guys that made a living doing it. Just proud of our whole Halmar Toyota team, Ferris Commerical Mowers, all of our great sponsors. Chris Larsen, all of my guys. We fought hard yesterday. I made a mistake in practice and we got this thing cleaned up and fixed up and these guys stuck with me. Thanks to Halmar, thanks to Chris, my wife, Jess (Friesen), who is here. All of my spotters too. The spotter we actually had in the carosuel – I hadn’t worked with him in like 20 years – he spotted for me in the modified stuff back in ’04 and ’05. It was cool to have him and Junior in the keyhole. Proud of our effort and proud to have a top-five.”
Toyota Racing PR
