Corey Heim Dominates at Lime Rock Park for Fifth Truck Series Win of the Season

By Colin Ward

Photo via Getty Images

In a commanding performance that left little doubt about who’s in control of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship hunt, Corey Heim led 99 of 100 laps to win the inaugural LiUNA! 150 at Lime Rock Park on Saturday afternoon.

Starting from the pole, Heim never gave up the top spot except during a brief moment on a late restart, ultimately cruising to his fifth win of the season and 16th of his career.

The 1.53-mile, seven-turn road course nestled in the hills of Lakeville, Connecticut, proved to be a perfect stage for Heim’s road racing prowess. He swept both stages, set the fastest lap of the race, and cruised to victory. The only real challenge came with 11 laps to go when a caution for a stalled truck brought the field back together for a thrilling restart.

Layne Riggs, restarting second, dove to the inside and momentarily grabbed the lead entering turn one. But he locked up the brakes and ran wide, dropping to 14th and causing a stack-up behind him. Heim calmly retook the lead by turn two and never looked back.

“It was nothing short of incredible,” Heim said. “These road courses – I really look forward to them. A flawless day, and we’ll take that and move forward and try and collect some wins that we should have had this year.”

The win was especially meaningful for Heim’s crew chief Scott Zipadelli, who grew up just 30 miles away from the track in Berlin, Connecticut. Dozens of family and friends gathered to watch the local favorite call the shots for Heim’s No. 11 Toyota.

“It’s awesome for Scott,” Heim said. “To see him so happy with our result and getting to take pictures with all of them was really cool — that was more motivation for me to go out and make sure we got this one.”

Ty Majeski crossed the line in second after nearly catching Heim in the closing laps. A minor mistake exiting turn four derailed his late-race charge.

“Honestly, we struggled with the truck a little bit to fire off,” Majeski said. “Got it close at the end, had a shot at Corey and probably got a little over-zealous in Turn 4, hit the curb and kind of ruined my shot to make him at least a little nervous.”

Rookie Gio Ruggiero brought it  home in third, giving Tricon Garage two trucks on the podium. Ben Rhodes and Cam Waters rounded out the top five.

The win at Lime Rock marks Heim’s third consecutive victory on a road course, something never before accomplished in Truck Series history. He previously won at Mid-Ohio in 2023 and Circuit of the Americas in 2024. With Saturday’s dominant performance, Heim also climbed into 10th place on the all-time wins list in the series.

He now holds a commanding 144-point lead in the championship standings as the series moves deeper into the summer stretch. If Heim keeps this pace, a second Truck Series Regular Season Championship will come easy, and the end of the year championship would be in sight. 

“Flawless days like today are hard to come by,” Heim said, “but we’re going to do everything we can to keep stacking them up.”

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park next for another short-track showdown — but all eyes will remain on Heim as he continues one of the most complete seasons in recent memory.