ATLANTA, GA - FEBRUARY 20: Corey Heim 1 TRICON Garage Robinhood Toyota during qualifying for the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Fr8 Racing 208 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on February 20, 2026 at the EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire AUTO: FEB 20 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Fr8 Racing 208 EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon95326022013
ATLANTA, GA - FEBRUARY 20: Corey Heim 1 TRICON Garage Robinhood Toyota during qualifying for the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Fr8 Racing 208 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on February 20, 2026 at the EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire AUTO: FEB 20 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Fr8 Racing 208 EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon95326022013
What most drivers cannot do in their entire Cup careers, Corey Heim has done before it has even officially started. With two wins this season on a part-time role, Heim is definitely having one of the best starts a NASCAR driver dreams of.
But when 23XI invested in Heim and offered him the part-time seat in February last year, many questioned why one of NASCAR's top Truck Series talents still wasn't getting a full-time Cup opportunity. Those doubts are put to rest today.
“He's making us look like we knew what we were doing when everybody was mad at us and just the sport that he didn't have a full-time Cup ride,” said 23XI President Steve Lauletta recently in a chat with NASCAR SiriusXM Radio.
Heim first secured a dominating upset win with a 10.365s lead at the inaugural San Diego race. Next, he won the recently concluded Brickyard race, winning 0.287s ahead of a desperately chasing Christopher Bell.
Lauletta then also explained why Heim was given selective Cup starts in the No. 67 rather than being rushed into a full-time role.
“But the plan we put together to take a really disciplined approach on his development and his integration into the 23XI system and just kind of building around him what this 67 program would look like until we could put all the pieces together that would lead to him joining our team full-time, which we all know now is next year,” Lauletta added in the interview.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - JULY 26: Corey Heim 67 23XI Racing. Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - JULY 26: Corey Heim 67 23XI Racing. Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire
As Heim is now confirmed for a full-time Cup seat next year, driving the No. 35, that patient strategy has borne fruit.
“He has certainly taken all of that in stride and is now proving that it was the right approach,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, NASCAR recently extended its practice time, and Heim isn’t exactly impressed.
Heim on the extended practice
According to the latest update, the races from New Hampshire will see a single practice session of 50 minutes as opposed to the two 25-minute sessions earlier. While everyone has mixed opinions, Heim feels it isn’t very different.
"I don't think you really get much better. You don't really learn a lot. I think to truly add practice and make the drivers happy, you got to either make them on separate days or just have one in the morning and one in the late afternoon to just have a good gap to debrief about the first practice as a driver, think about what could be better, and then go out there and execute that,” Heim explained on Rubbin is Racing.
“So, just adding time to one practice, I don't think makes much of a difference for me."
As the garage gets a mid-season break, the Cup Series will head to the Iowa Speedway for the 23rd race of the season.
Written by
Suyashdeep Sason
Edited by
Suyashdeep Sason