ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series field still cannot beat Corey Heim.
The reigning series champion, who won a record 12 races last season but does not have a full-time ride this year, dominated Friday’s Black’s Tire 200 at Rockingham Speedway.
Heim led 178 laps of the one-mile track to earn his 25th victory in the series, which is fifth on the all-time list.
Driving the No. 1 TRICON Toyota for the team which he won the title last year, Heim had to fend off Kaden Honeycutt, who replaced him in the No. 11 TRICON entry.
And for good measure, Heim won his second straight Triple Truck Challenge, which paid he and his team a $100,000 bonus and a crack at $500,000 next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Yeah, it means a lot,” said Heim, who is running a partial schedule in all three NASCAR national series this season. “I don’t really think about it in the truck, but being able to reflect on it, it would be cool to be the first person to sweep all three if we are able to do it.
“There is a lot of motivation for these guys in the 1 camp with Celsius as our primary next week, so super excited about that.”
Honeycutt finished .090 seconds behind Heim.
“I tried to shove Tanner (Gray) as far as I can and hoped that he would have gone to the bottom or something like that, but I don’t really know what I could have done differently other than run me and him down in the marbles and all that,” Honeycutt sad.
“I didn’t want to do that, but I wanted to make sure that me or Corey won the race, and I obviously wanted to win it, but it was good that our Tricon organization could do that. Our team has been really, really good this year — across all teams. I think this shows that. Corey’s done great with the 5 and the 1.
“Fast race trucks every week, and I think our time will come.”
Front Row Motorsports Ford driver Layne Riggs finished third.
Stewart Friesen was fourth, followed by Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum, Corey LaJoie, Ty Majeski, pole winner Jake Garcia and Cole Butcher.
