Corey Heim won the pole, the second stage and was leading the Championship 4 before being involved in an on-track incident on lap 121. Heim battled damage from the incident on the TRICON Garage No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, but was able to get back on the lead lap to finish 18th in the race.
Jesse Love was the top-Toyota finisher in Friday night’s season finale, earning a career-best fourth place result in only his third career Truck Series start.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Phoenix Raceway
Race 23 of 23 – 150 Laps, 150 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Christian Eckes*
2nd, Jake Garcia*
3rd, Chase Purdy*
4th, JESSE LOVE
5th, Ben Rhodes*
7th, DEAN THOMPSON
9th, TANNER GRAY
18th, COREY HEIM
20th, TYLER HILL
22nd, TYLER ANKRUM
23rd, TAYLOR GRAY
24th, STEWART FRIESEN
33rd, JAKE DREW
36th, CHRIS HACKER
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
JESSE LOVE, No. 1 HomeSmiles Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 4th
How was your race?
“I thought it was alright. I was doing a bad job at the beginning. I fought a little bit of a loose truck, but not bad overall. I was losing spots on restarts and I finally was able to figure out what I needed to do better. I kind of figured out the bottom in (turns) one and two better and once I did that I thought I could maintain on restarts and kind of pickoff trucks one at a time. It’s upsetting that the 11 (Corey Heim) didn’t win the championship. I was doing all I could to help him. Just some things don’t always go your way. It’s an okay finish. Just left a little bit on the table and thought we had a shot to win. Just some of those green-white-checkered restarts, I thought we were ahead of the 99 (Ben Rhodes) and they scored the 99 ahead of us so I think if that didn’t happen we’d have a fighting shot.”
COREY HEIM, No. 11 Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, TRICON Garage
Finishing Position: 18th
Are you disapointed to not win the championship tonight?
“Yeah, obviously I’m dissapointed. It’s just part of racing I guess. Obviously, got cleaned out there and got a lot of rear damage and lost some of my side force so I couldn’t really do much from there. Yeah, I don’t know. Just really felt like I had them covered today. The 38 (Zane Smith) was fast, but I thought we could’ve raced it out there at the end and it just kind of turned into a wreckfest at the end. I’m really thankful for my TRICON Garage crew and Safelite and Toyota Racing. Once again, I really thought we had the best truck today, just really unfornatute.”
What happened the first time with Carson Hocevar?
“I just got cleaned out. I passed him clean and then he hit me two or three times and then finally he had enough fun just kind of hitting me and then he wrecked me. It is what it is. Every guy on Sunday is going to see that and understand that they’re going to be racing against him like that. I’m not too worrried about it. I don’t gotta race him anymore so I don’t have to deal with it too much. It’s kind of expected. He’s been racing me like that since he was five years old. I raced with him in quarter midgets. It’s just part of championship racing.”
What happened off of turn 2 the second time you had contact with Carson Hocevar?
“Like I mentioned, I had no side force and as soon as someone puts it on my door you kind of lose side force and lose control. I hate it for those guys. They deserved a good run today. Maybe next time.”
Golin for Toyota Racing
