“It’s Heim Time!” Corey Heim Earns First Career Cup Series Victory at Coronado

Corey Heim earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday in the Anduril 250 at the San Diego Street Course, taking the lead from 23XI teammate Tyler Reddick with three laps to go.

Heim moved ahead after late contact with Reddick on Lap 73 and pulled away to win by 10.365 seconds over Bubba Wallace. The victory came in Heim’s 13th career Cup Series start and gave 23XI Racing its first 1-2 finish in organization history. Heim’s victory also gave the No. 67 its first win in NASCAR Cup Series history. Reddick later suffered a flat left-front tire after the contact and faded to a 25th-place finish.

“I’m speechless,” Heim said. “After stage two, I just took a deep breath. I had high expectations coming into this race. Even playing field for me. You don’t see that every day for a young driver like myself. Just kind of took a deep breath, reset and went after it.”

Reddick had led from Lap 64 until Heim closed in during the final run. Heim said he waited until five laps to go to apply pressure, hoping to force a mistake from his teammate.

“He doored me down there in five and gave it back to me,” Heim said. “That’s something you don’t see every day. That’s a great teammate.”

Wallace finished second after recovering from a two-lap penalty for a loose wheel, while Kyle Larson led the second-most laps on the day and finished third. Zane Smith and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top five.

Wallace said the result still left him thinking about what could have been, but he was happy for Heim and crew chief Bootie Barker.

“Being a winner in the Cup Series is something that we all, when we get there, want to achieve,” Wallace said. “To be able to do that for him in his 13th start, it’s pretty special.”

The race’s biggest incident came on Lap 33, when Austin Hill locked up his brakes entering Turn 1 on a restart and forced Connor Zilisch into the outside wall. Zilisch bounced back into traffic and collected pole winner Shane van Gisbergen, ending the day for both of the Trackhouse Racing Chevrolets.

Zilisch, who led eight laps, finished 37th. Van Gisbergen, the pre-race favorite who led seven laps, finished 38th.

The race featured 20 lead changes among 13 drivers, with Ryan Blaney leading a race-high 12 laps. Larson, who led 11 laps, said it was the “cleanest road course race” he could remember, but ultimately could not hold off the 23XI Racing Toyotas to snap his 40-race winless streak.

Blaney won Stage 1, while Ryan Preece won Stage 2. Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Riley Herbst, Blaney and Michael McDowell completed the top 10.

Leaving this race, Tyler Reddick leads the season-long points standings by 8 points over 23XI Racing team owner Denny Hamlin.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action on June 28 at Sonoma Raceway. Shane van Gisbergen is the defending winner of the event.