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Corey Heim puts on dominant performance, wins Heart of America 200 at Kansas
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

While he wasn’t able to sweep the stages tonight, Corey Heim was dominant in Kansas and put up another great performance. Heim has put the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on notice.

The only trucker capable of even keeping it close with Corey Heim tonight was Zane Smith. Even so, he was barely able to get within a second of him by the time the last lap came around.

Two wins on the year now, Heim is cooking with fire now. To make things even more impressive, he said he thinks his Kansas setup has “potential” to be really good later this year.

Yeah, I think so.

Once again, it’s Heim Time in the Craftsman Truck Series. I have a feeling it won’t be the last.

Corey Heim wins opening stage

This race got started off with a bizarre incident from Ty Majeski to open things. He was up into the wall and had severe damage to his truck at the start of this thing. A caution came out and this race had to get reset and take off again in the first five laps.

Once things got back green, it was easygoing. A lot of racing going on up front and throughout the field, and it was clean racing. Corey Heim passed Zane Smith about halfway through the first stage.

Heim would go on to win this stage, it was good foreshadowing, too. This kid is so good, he’s getting a bit of Cup Series experience between last week and this week filling in for Erik Jones.

Coming into this race, Heim had an average finishing position of 3.7 in the Truck Series this season.

Zane Smith hits back in Stage 2

Corey Heim was great in the second stage, too. However, he wasn’t able to sweep the stages and have a perfect night. Zane Smith gave his best in Stage 2. It was enough to get by Heim and take the stage win, although points don’t matter much for Smith as he’s a Cup driver this season.

Again, there wasn’t a lot of commotion in this race. You had a lot of fun racing in the field. Christian Eckes and Kaden Honeycutt put up great efforts. Brett Moffitt, a former champion, was also driving well and having fun during this race.

The battle between Smith and Heim in this stage was a good bit of racing. However, it wasn’t enough to make this a very exciting race. It was good racing, passing, and all of that. Just needed a touch of chaos that it was lacking.

In the final stage, Corey Heim would take control and wouldn’t look back. He is letting everyone know the championship runs through him. Christian Eckes might have something to say about that this season, though.

Corey Heim puts the field to bed in Kansas

When you let Heim get out front, he knows how to run away. The Truck Series driver is seen as one of the future stars of NASCAR. He carries himself like a Cup Series driver, knows how to take care of equipment, and knows how to step on necks when he’s got a fast truck or car.

Zane Smith made a late push. It was not enough. Smith got close enough to sniff Heim’s exhaust fumes, but that was about it. There was no beating the 11 truck tonight in Kansas. It also didn’t help that Smith lost eight positions on pit road during one pit stop.

Heim Time means bedtime for the rest of the Truck Series drivers. Heim can win on road courses, short tracks, intermediate tracks – it doesn’t matter. Expect him to be in the Championship 4 and expect him to make another driver take the championship from him. He won’t give it up again like he did a year ago.

Corey Heim gets another win, another top-5 and he’s not looking back. Heim knows the only goal is to win a championship, besides, he won’t be in the Truck Series after this season. I’d bet money on it.

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

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