The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday night for the running of the North Carolina Education Lottery 200, which saw Corey Heim completely dominate to pick up his series-leading fourth win of the season. Heim avenged last week's disappointment at North Wilkesboro when he was spun from the lead on the final lap by Chandler Smith.
Tricon Garage rookie Gio Ruggiero led the field to green, but the battle for the lead quickly turned into a back-and-forth affair between Heim and Cup Series regular Ross Chastain. After the two traded the lead multiple times, Heim pulled away to win the opening stage. Stage 2 was never in doubt for Heim as he would go on to sweep the first two stages of the race. Heim reached 696 laps led this season during the stage, which is the most through 11 races in Truck Series history.
The only caution for incident struck on Lap 70 when Ruggiero got loose exiting Turn 4 and came down into Smith. As Smith was about to correct his truck, he made contact with Ty Majeski, sending both drivers spinning. BJ McLeod and Connor Mosack were also involved in the incident. The remainder of the final stage was relatively uneventful, aside from Ben Rhodes making an unscheduled stop due to a flat right front tire on Lap 87.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: Corey Heim dominates at Charlotte
Other than a green-flag pit cycle late in the final stage, victory was never in doubt for Heim on Friday night. Leader of a race-high 98 of the 134 laps, Heim put on a show and won by a comfortable 6.2 seconds over Chastain, setting the mark for the largest margin of victory in series history at Charlotte. It is his 15th career victory, which ties him with three-time champion Matt Crafton for 10th on the all-time wins list. He becomes the youngest driver to record 15 wins in Truck Series history.
North Carolina Education Lottery 200 finishing position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
Winner | Corey Heim | 61 |
2nd | Ross Chastain | 0 |
3rd | Kaden Honeycutt | 50 |
4th | Layne Riggs | 48 |
5th | Kyle Busch | 0 |
6th | Grant Enfinger | 32 |
7th | Matt Mills | 31 |
8th | Daniel Hemric | 38 |
9th | Rajah Caruth | 28 |
10th | Brandon Jones | 0 |
11th | Jake Garcia | 26 |
12th | Tyler Ankrum | 25 |
13th | Stewart Friesen | 24 |
14th | Parker Kligerman | 23 |
15th | BJ McLeod | 22 |
16th | Andres Perez | 21 |
17th | Ben Rhodes | 20 |
18th | Luke Fenhaus | 19 |
19th | Timmy Hill | 18 |
20th | Matt Crafton | 17 |
21st | Gio Ruggiero | 24 |
22nd | Stefan Parsons | 15 |
23rd | Connor Mosack | 14 |
24th | Spencer Boyd | 13 |
25th | Jack Wood | 12 |
26th | Tanner Gray | 11 |
27th | Frankie Muniz | 10 |
28th | Mason Maggio | 0 |
29th | Cody Dennison | 8 |
30th | Toni Breidinger | 7 |
31st | Dawson Sutton | 6 |
32nd | Ty Majeski | 11 |
33rd | Justin S. Carroll | 4 |
34th | Chandler Smith | 8 |
With his fourth win in the season's 11 races so far, Heim extends his points lead (+100) over Smith with seven regular season races remaining. Heim, Smith, Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Hemric remain the only full-time drivers in the series to visit victory lane this season, putting them atop the playoff leaderboard.
The next stop for the Craftsman Truck Series is at Nashville Superspeedway for the running of the Rackley Roofing 200 on Friday, May 30 (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Current Xfinity Series driver Christian Eckes is the defending race winner after leading every lap last season.