Corey Heim dominated a rainy NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway and eventually was declared the winner after a second red flag for rain came on lap 124.
The win is Heim’s first of the season and the first of the season for the newly rebranded TRICON Garage. The Marietta, Ga. native now has three career Truck Series victories.
Heim swept both stages and continually held off the leaders on several late-race restarts to take his first win with his new team.
Kyle Busch finished second followed by Zane Smith in third. Ty Majeski came home fourth and Tanner Gray finished fifth. TRICON had a very impressive day as four of its five trucks finished in the top ten.
Top Storylines of the Race
-Rain was an issue for the entire day, as the start of the race was delayed due to the rain (and a few lightning strikes), then the race itself was red-flagged on lap 68 for more rain.
-In the same vein, NASCAR debuted the oval rain tire, and drivers were able to take advantage of them during stage one mostly but had them on standby as rain continually threatened the race.
–William Sawalich, who led every lap en route to winning the ARCA Menards Series East season opener, made an impressive Truck Series debut. He was arguably passed by the most trucks while on rain tires, made an absolutely incredible save on lap 108 after getting door slammed by Carson Hocevar into turn 1, and brought his No. 1 home an impressive ninth.
-Another ARCA Menards Series driver, Conner Jones, made his Truck Series debut for ThorSport Racing, driving his first of nine races in the No. 66 – the team that just won at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track with Joey Logano just one week prior. Jones ended the night 18th.
-The race did not experience any cautions for incident until lap 81 when Lawless Alan closed the door on Daniel Dye and looped his No. 45 in turn 3. The contact with Dye came just laps after making contact with Hailie Deegan. Dye himself, who also was penalized for speeding, spun out on lap 111. Not a good night for any of the three drivers.
-Hocevar was penalized two laps by NASCAR after seemingly making an attempt to wreck Taylor Gray on lap 116. The two made contact and Hocevar’s left-rear tire was cut. Reminiscent of his incident with Sawalich earlier in the race, Hocevar turned left into Gray’s door, but the cut tire caused him to spin himself out. NASCAR made the decision to hold the No. 42 in his pit…
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