Trackin’ Trucks: Corey Heim Wins at Martinsville
Corey Heim continued his domination for the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season at Martinsville Speedway, earning his 11th victory of the year. Heim held off Kaden Honeycutt by 0.451 seconds for the win.
Heim swept both of the stages during the Slim Jim 200 and led a race-high 77 laps before collecting the checkered flag for the eleventh time this season.
“I don‘t want to jump to any conclusions yet,” Heim said of his championship chances. “We‘ve got a big race next week…
“We wanted to capitalize on our day and make the best of it. Once we got out front, we showed that we really had something to work with here. We‘ve got a big one next week to close it out. It‘s going to be tough, but I‘m confident we can do it.”
Behind Heim, the final Playoff cutoff race was unfolding as Honeycutt was forced to out-battle Layne Riggs in the closing laps to secure his place for the Championship 4.
Honeycutt finished second to make it happen. The finish at the track ended up being a tiebreaker for Honeycutt, as Riggs could not catch him.
Riggs ultimately finished in the third position. Riggs missed a shift on a Lap 29 restart, and while he was able to recover from it, he never could catch Honeycutt to gain the one point he needed to secure his place to compete for the championship next weekend at Phoenix.
“I was dejected even when I thought we were in (the Championship 4) at first,” said Riggs, a three-time winner this year. “I just don‘t like racing that way, man. I‘m hearing, ‘Gotta get one (position), gotta get one,‘ and everybody knows how it is.
“If I‘ve got the opportunity to get in for my team, I‘m going to do it, even if I don‘t want to do it … It all kind of started with that missed shift on that restart. I‘m not really sure what happened. I‘ve never missed a shift in a truck my whole career.
“We do have some new transmissions. I guess I‘m just not quite used to them yet. I‘m pretty upset about that. I think things could have been a lot different.”
Playoff contenders Rajah Caruth and Daniel Hemric saw their championship hopes come to an end after getting caught up in separate incidents
Caruth suffered a blown tire and lost control of his No. 71 Chevrolet, ultimately hitting the outside wall. The damage was significant and ended his day. He finished in the 34th position.
Hemric, who needed to win at Martinsville to advance, was caught up on the Lap 29 restart when Riggs missed a shift.
After suffering damage to both sides of his truck, Hemric’s No. 19 Chevrolet started to overheat. He went two laps down while trying to make repairs. He was able to regain those laps with subsequent cautions, but his chances of winning and advancing were already diminished.
Grant Enfinger was also eliminated from competing next weekend for the championship. He finished 12th.
The Craftsman Truck Series will crown a champion next Friday, October 31st at Phoenix Raceway during the season finale.
Don’t miss a minute of the action at 7:30 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.
Championship 4 drivers:
Corey Heim, No. 11 Toyota
Kaden Honeycutt, No. 52 Toyota
Reviewed by Courtney Horn
on
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Rating:
