After suffering the first speeding penalty of his career at the end of stage 1, Corey Heim weaved his way through the field en route to his second victory of 2025 in the Ecosave 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Recap
Craftsman Truck Series newcomer Corey Day earned his first career pole, wrapping around the 1.5-mile track in his No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevy Silverado to log a qualifying lap of 30.388 seconds.
McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver Tyler Ankrum joined Day on the front row for the green flag which took place a bit after 9pm Eastern time.
Spire Cup driver Justin Haley entered the race in their No. 07 Gainbridge Silverado and made an impression on the leaders early, taking Day side-by-side on the first lap before Ankrum took them three-wide to pass both Spire trucks into turn 1 on lap 2.
Ankrum held the top spot for a bit while turmoil developed in his rearview mirror as Jack Wood clipped the turn 2 wall in the opening laps followed by Tricon Garage rookie William Sawalich slapping the turn 4 wall on lap 11 that put him a lap off the pace.
Neither incident necessitated a caution, so the battle for the lead raged on as reigning series champion Ty Majeski poked the nose of his Ford F-150 into the conversation. As Day maneuvered by Ankrum on lap 16, Majeski blew by the rookie the next lap to take the point.
Majeski’s No. 98 Soda Sense machine pulled out a moderate lead for the remainder of the stage, leading to the attention to point towards the middle of the field. Daytona winner Corey Heim missed the mark in qualifying, starting 16th in a 31-driver grid, but by lap 7, Heim made his way to 7th.
Heim moved all the way up to fourth by the time the first yellow flag of the day flew on lap 26 for light rain that would eventually bring the race under its first of two red flags for weather. Majeski claimed the stage 1 victory under yellow flag conditions, followed by Ankrum, Day, Heim, and Stewart Friesen.
Operating off of the assumption that race would resume shortly, the teams brought their drivers down to pit road for service between stages where the speed police caught Corey Heim, the first such infraction of his impressive Truck Series career.
When the race finally resumed over an hour later, Ben Rhodes led the field to green after taking two right-side tires on the pit stop, and the Kentucky native maintained the advantage for the first half of the lap until Tyler Ankrum took a strong run inside going into turn 3 to take the lead back.
A minor moment between Corey Day and Ty Majeski on the frontstretch nearly unraveled the No. 98 team’s day as damage sustained to the Soda Sense truck’s right side tweaked the handling and dropped them outside of the top-10 by the end of the stage.
The rest of stage 2 played out with Ankrum taking the Playoff point with Chandler Smith, Friesen, Heim, and Rhodes rounding out the top-5. Heim’s second stage saw him pass over 20 trucks in order to regain the track position his penalty cost him.
When the field dove onto pit road for the second time, it was Heim that emerged victorious, and the race off pit road looked like it might not be the only win he’d claim as Mother Nature struck yet again.
NASCAR tossed out a second but shorter red flag that failed to end the race short of the scheduled distance. Before the race went back green with 63 laps to go, defending race winner Rajah Caruth and ThorSport driver Luke Fenhaus suffered from pit penalties that put them at the back of the field to start the final stage.
The next dozen laps clicked by with eye-catching battles happening all over the track as the leaders kept swapping the top spot with Stewart Friesen popping ahead when the first caution for cause was thrown on lap 83 for a Kaden Honeycutt spin.
After winning stage 2, Tyler Ankrum lost track position on pit road, leading to him bouncing the No. 18 LiUNA! Silverado off the wall in an attempt to avoid Honeycutt’s spinning truck.
The race got back underway briefly on lap 91, but racing at speed was short-lived as Jack Wood’s bad night made a turn for the worse when his No. 91 Chevy broke traction in turn 3 where he hit the wall and brought out the race’s fourth and final yellow.
On the race’s final restart, Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs led the field to green with Corey Heim at his side, and after a short battle between the two, Heim snagged the lead on lap 103 and opened up an advantage on the rest of the field.
Heim’s Tricon Toyota Tundra appeared to be hooked up the whole evening, able to slice and dice his way through the pack. His teammate Tanner Gray made a late charge that ultimately fell short in the final 15 laps as Grant Enfinger joined the race for the lead late.
As the No. 9 Champion Power Equipment Chevy locked in on the rear bumper of the No. 11 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota, Enfinger lost grip, giving Heim just enough space to score his second win of the early 2025 season and his first ever win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Enfinger, Tanner Gray, Majeski, and Riggs filled in the rest of the top-5 with Friesen, Caruth, Smith, Crafton, and Ankrum finished with respectable top-10 results. Here is a link to the full results.
(Top Photo Credit: John K. Harrelson/Nigel Kinrade Photography)
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