Corey Heim left his competition in the dust on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Heim led 98 of 134 laps and swept every stage on his way to a convincing victory in the NC Education Lottery 200.
Heim's No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota had no equal, and a pristine performance on pit road and behind the wheel led to Heim's 15th career NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series victory and his first at America's Home for Racing. Heim paced a pair of Niece Motorsports drivers – NASCAR Cup Series star Ross Chastain and up-and-comer Kaden Honeycutt – to the finish line, covering Chastain's Chevrolet by 6.229 seconds.
Layne Riggs finished fourth with Kyle Busch fifth and Grant Enfinger, who finished second in the General Tire 150 earlier Friday, sixth. Matt Mills, Daniel Hemric, Rajah Caruth and Brandon Jones rounded out the top 10.
Heim also posted the race's quickest lap time, a 30.41-second lap, in scoring his fourth win of the year. Pole winner Giovanni Ruggiero led two laps but ended up 21st.
COREY HEIM, NO. 11 TRICON GARAGE TOYOTA (Race Winner): "I kind of needed a smooth-sailing day, considering we've had so many days this year where we ran the best, but things happened and we didn't win. In the past, this has been our best track, so I'm glad to close things out here for once. It's been circumstantial things that have kept us from winning more races this year, but tonight was finally one that was smooth sailing."
ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 44 NIECE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET (Runner-Up): "For our Niece Motorsports Chevy, we were best in class and to have three in the top seven with Kaden and Matt Mills, that's what we need. I first drove for Niece in 2018, and I'll keep driving for (team owner) Al (Niece) as long as he'll have me. It was super-fun to rip the top all night. I had a lot of fun racing (Kyle Busch) and Kaden."
KADEN HONEYCUTT, NO. 45 NIECE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET (Third-Place Finisher): "Awesome, man. I'm just really grateful to have an awesome team owner like Al Niece, who fought for our freedom, and to get to come out here and do what we're doing. Every veteran who's fought for our country, we're out here for them. A great night tonight for our company, second, third and seventh. A good day for us. I hate that we didn't win the race. This thing has been so good here. We were good here last year and I put a lot of pressure on myself to win, but that's how badly I want to do it."