After the start of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race was rain-delayed 30 minutes at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday afternoon, polesitter Corey Heim put a clinic on the field, leading 30 of 67 laps.
The No. 11 TRICON Garage driver held off Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith and McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes during the final restart on lap 63 and refused to relinquish the lead through the checkered flag, where he finished .947 seconds ahead of Smith.Â
The O’Reilly Auto Parts 150 victory marks Heim’s second win of the season.
“We came here with high expectations — I felt like I did a good job to stay up front last year, but I put in the work to go from a third-place truck to a winning truck,” Heim said. “Thankfully, I made minimal mistakes. I made a couple that cost me a few spots, but nothing that was catastrophic for our finish. We were able to keep that top-five track position and sure enough, when it dried out, we were the fastest track and we were able to drive to the front.”
Eckes, Stewart Friesen and Ben Rhodes completed the top five.
Rhodes, driving the No. 99 for ThorSport Racing, won the first stage, while teammate Ty Majeski won the second stage. The two made contact on lap 43 that sent both off-course and outside the top 20.
There was also a significant wreck on the lap-22 restart that collectively spun Will Rodgers, Marco Andretti and Nick Sanchez. Andretti was able to bounce back to finish 19th in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. Â