Stock Car Spotlight: Corey Heim & Isabella Robusto

In the second part of our five-part series Stock Car Spotlight, we’ll be turning our focus towards two up-and-coming talents in the Toyota Racing Development pipeline: Craftsman Truck Series veteran Corey Heim and ARCA Menards Series racer Isabella Robusto.

To go back and read part one of this series discussing Xfinity Series phenom Connor Zilisch and multi-faceted wunderkind Brent Crews, click here.

Corey Heim – Craftsman Truck Series

Jey: At just 22 years old, Corey Heim is quite simply the most promising young prospect in the top-3 series (well, on-paper, at least.)

Currently piloting the No. 11 Toyota Tundra for Tricon Garage in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Corey navigated an interesting path to his current ride and possesses an equally interesting path forward.

Heim got his start in Legends Cars, winning the Young Lions division in 2016 and the Thursday Thunder Pro Division in 2017 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

By late 2018, Heim not only moved up to Super Late Models, but he found himself winning races, crossing the line first at the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville (though he would lose the race on a technicality) before capturing the first trophy he got to keep at South Boston Speedway.

Heim advanced to ARCA competition in 2019, running 13 of the 20 races for Chad Bryant Racing, a smaller outfit that was fielding two entries at the time.

Heim notched a top-5 in his debut at Five Flags Speedway, and through his starts, he completed every lap and came home outside the top-10 just once at Nashville where he finished 11th.

In 2020, Heim jumped into drive for the much more competitive Venturini Motorsports in seven races. The most fruitful of those starts came at Kansas where he logged his maiden ARCA victory. He would pair that with a late model win at the Speedfest 200 at Cordele Motor Speedway.

Heim earned the opportunity to run full-time with Venturini the following year, winning six times in twenty events but coming second to another rising star, Ty Gibbs.

In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Corey debuted in a Kyle Busch Motorsports machine at Darlington where a late wreck out of his control dropped him from 7th to 23rd.

The year 2022 brought him more opportunities with KBM to the tune of 15 starts, notching his first career win in Atlanta with a daring last lap pass on his teammate Chandler Smith in just his fifth career start.

Heim fended a late challenge in the closing laps from Christian Eckes and Chandler Smith to record his second career Truck Series victory later at Gateway later that year.

After a successful but abbreviated 2022, the next season would be where Corey arrived and started to land on everyone’s radars, notching three victories for the newly-formed Tricon Garage (created from the remnants of David Gilliand Racing) en route to a Championship Four berth at Phoenix.

This effort would be undone with an 18th-place finish after Carson Hocevar would spin Heim late in the going, effectively ending his championship bid. Heim also picked up a handful of starts with Sam Hunt Racing in the Xfinity Series with a best finish of 10th at Darlington. 

Last year saw Heim excelling at his craft, tacking on six more Truck Series victories and a close runner-up finish in the championship to Ty Majeski.

Both Legacy Motor Club and 23XI Racing announced Corey Heim as their reserve driver for the NASCAR Cup Series. Though reserve drivers hardly ever see the track, the 21-year-old racer would debut at Dover in a fill-in role for Erik Jones who had suffered injury after crashing at Talladega.

Heim managed a 25th-place result at Dover and followed it up with a 22nd place at Kansas. He would also make his 23XI debut at Nashville in the No. 50 Mobil1 Toyota Camry where he was running 12th at the end of regulation before an endless string of overtime restarts sunk him down to 29th.

Heim officially signed as 23XI’s first development driver in February 2025, which seems to cement his path to the Cup Series in the next few seasons, possibly as soon as 2026 via Legacy MC if they acquire a third charter from Rick Ware Racing.

As has been the case the last three years, Heim finds himself logging another season in the Craftsman Truck Series for Tricon in the No. 11 truck.

While this may sound a bit dry, Corey’s résumé truly speaks for itself about the caliber of prospect he is. Some would argue he should have already been moved up, but unfortunately, that hasn’t happened to this point, though hopefully he will find himself full-time in Cup or Xfinity soon.

Isabella Robusto – ARCA Menards Series

Tanner: When Isabella Robusto was just 13 years old, she went to Texas Motor Speedway where she became the first female racer to win a Legends Car National Qualifier event, collecting some national spotlight in the process.

Robusto’s continued development in Legends Cars led to her being noticed by Rev Racing, and the team decided to bring her onto the squad for 2020 and 2021, running select events in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series where she piloted a late model.

Her steady gains in that series gave her an opportunity with Toyota Racing Development for 2022, moving her into a Lee Faulk-owned car that she rode into the sunset for a pair of victories and over 30 top-10s.

After missing out on her ARCA Menards Series debut due to a concussion in 2023, the South Carolina native made her first start in the series at Phoenix Raceway in March 2024 where she notched a top-10 before improving for a top-5 at Elko in her second appearance.

She also found success in the ARCA West Series by earning podium finishes at the Portland road course and the half-mile Irwindale Speedway.

Her success extended out to the ARCA East Series as well. Her lone start of the year yielded a runner-up finish at the Nashville Fairgrounds, giving her a fourth overall top-5 of the season.

While her 2025 season hasn’t gotten off to the hottest of starts, Robusto’s career seems to be headed in the right direction, running the full 2025 slate in the ARCA Menards Series for Venturini.

A poor finish at Daytona resulted from a crash while she was running in the top-5 while Phoenix wasn’t much kinder as a mechanical failure put her out of the event just 19 laps into the 150-lap event.

Two results outside the top-20 failed to put a dent in her spirits as Isabella took another fast Venturini Toyota Camry up to the front and contended for the win at Talladega, something that was ruined by a caution on the final restart.

Robusto’s third-place put her back on the right track, but while racing with Lanie Buice, Buice’s Chevy broke traction coming out turn 2 on the final lap in Kansas, collecting Isabella’s No. 55 Toyota. Her car careened into the inside wall, relegating her from a second-straight top-10 finish to 13th.

In all, Robusto remains one of the brighter talents in a pool full of them, and being in the Toyota pipeline could help her see the top-3 national series sooner rather than later where the sky’s the limit for her racing career.

(Top Photo Credit: Justin Casterline/Getty Images)