Corey Heim triumphs once more within the NASCAR Truck Collection at Watkins Glen Worldwide on Friday evening within the Mission 176 at The Glen.
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Collection championship chief Corey Heim scored his fourth consecutive highway course victory – the sixth of his profession – in a dramatic triple extra time end as dusk approached in Friday’s Mission 176 at The Glen on the historic Watkins Glen (N.Y) Worldwide.
Corey Heim Triumphs Once more
The 23-year-old Georgia native took the lead on a restart on the primary extra time, then held place in his No. 11 Tricon Storage Toyota with a pair of masterful restarts on the second and third extra time intervals. He in the end held off former NASCAR Xfinity Collection champion Daniel Hemric and rookie Giovanni Ruggiero by 0.202 seconds.
It’s Heim’s seventeenth sequence win and he’s the youngest driver in sequence historical past to say that whole. That is the second time this season he’s gained from pole place.
The race on the two.45-mile historic venue in upstate New York was comparatively calm and clear early on, with solely a single additional warning along with the primary two stage breaks. However a gentle barrage of incidents pressured six extra warning intervals and the three overtimes – the race solely ending inside a pair minutes of when NASCAR had pre-determined to name it official due to darkness.
Heim bought the soar on the ultimate extra time however then slowed barely and wiggled the entrance finish of his Toyota in effort to get the gas pick-up. It did the trick and he was capable of go full throttle once more, heading off Hemric within the No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevy and 19-year previous Giovanni Ruggiero within the No. 17 Tricon Storage Toyota.
“Simply by no means quit,” mentioned Heim, who led a race greatest 44 laps however needed to rally from eleventh place on a lap 43 restart. “I bought behind in that final stage and was scratching and clawing attempting to get again by means of the sphere.
“I had my brakes just about exit on me fully on that lengthy inexperienced flag run, was beating them up attempting to get again by means of the sphere – blew the bus cease chicane between turns 4 and 5 – and made a variety of errors myself. I’ve had a variety of them get away from us this 12 months by cautions or no matter else, lastly had one go our approach.”
Nearly for Christopher Bell
For a lot of the ultimate frequently scheduled laps, it regarded like NASCAR Cup Collection common Christopher Bell might pull off an emotional victory. The 2017 truck sequence champ was piloting the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota for the workforce’s owner-driver Stewart Friesen who suffered severe accidents in a dust modified race crash per week in the past.
Bell – playing on a late-race gas-saving technique – was main with one lap to go in regulation Friday when a warning got here out for a multi-car accident involving former sequence champion Ben Rhodes. However the a number of overtimes pressured Bell to pit for gas. His rally ahead to a fourth-place end was spectacular.
Tyler Ankrum, NASCAR Xfinity Collection common Sammy Smith, Ty Majeski, NASCAR Xfinity Collection championship chief Connor Zilisch, Matt Mills, and Layne Riggs rounded out the highest ten.
Rhodes’ account was indicative of an impactful day in figuring out the championship subject, with just one extra regular-season race remaining to set the ten-driver subject. Friesen had claimed one of many computerized Playoff berths with a win at Michigan earlier this season. Nonetheless, the intense accidents he suffered final week and his absence from Friday’s race have doubtlessly opened up an additional driver Playoff place.
Earlier than the inexperienced flag, Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia held a 16-point benefit over Rhodes for the tenth and last factors switch place.
Majeski completed seventh Friday. Garcia was fifteenth and the two-time sequence champ Rhodes ended up twenty sixth regardless of claiming the win in Stage 2. Garcia now takes a slim 11-point benefit over Rhodes and 21 factors over Ruggiero into the ultimate common season race subsequent Saturday evening at Richmond.
Friesen can request a medical waiver, and if NASCAR grants it, he would stay within the Playoffs — altering the Playoff image but once more.
Subsequent Up
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Collection strikes to the Richmond (Va.) Raceway three-quarter miler for subsequent Friday evening’s common season finale, the eero 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Majeski is the defending race winner.
