By: Ajeng Cahyaningtyas, Staff Writer
Darlington, S.C. – Saturday at Darlington Raceway, it was “Heim Time”.
Corey Heim scored the victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoff opener in unlikely fashion, overtaking Layne Riggs after the No. 34 cut a tire and slammed the wall with 20 laps to go.
The brush in the wall for Riggs was a brush of good luck for Heim who led from there and grabbed his eighth win of 2025 and first at Darlington.
“I felt like the 34 (Layne Riggs) and the 38 (Chandler Smith) were really good all day,” Heim said. “I could make a little speed on the wall, but it was such a high risk play. If you screw up – I mean you saw so many people have those right front issues. If you scrub the wall, you are in bad shape. So proud of these guys. It feels like I’m in a dream.”
It was Heim’s third straight win of the year.
“Eight wins is phenomenal,” Heim said. “Crazy to look back on but so much to look forward to. Just really speechless as far as effort. Them, and Toyota and Safelite – it’s been an awesome ride and we are going to keep going.”
For Riggs he could only manage a 17th-place finish after leading 71 laps and winning the first stage.
“I’m just disappointed in myself with the way I didn’t really manage the race good enough,” Riggs said. “I thought we had a great truck all day. I felt like I was out of control in the first stage and we still finished second.
“I think we had a really good piece. We were leading and I ran the bottom in three and four a lot, and then it was time to move back to the top and I just didn’t anticipate the lack of grip that I had after running on the bottom for five, six, seven laps in a row.”
Coming home second was Daniel Hemric. The Xfinity Series Champion racked up his ninth top five of the year and was followed by fellow playoff drivers Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski. Trevor Bayne made his first start since 2023 and came home fifth for TRICON Garage.
Tanner Gray, Tyler Ankrum, Timmy Hill, Corey Day, and Jake Garcia rounded out the top ten.
Playoff driver Chandler Smith crashed out of the event on lap 14 after blowing a tire into Turn 1. He enters the second race of the playoffs at Bristol Motor Speedway two points below the cutline.