NEWTON, IA – The first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway in five years turned into a tire-management event, and Corey Heim thrived. In his seventh start of the season, Heim was fastest in the practice session and poised to contend for his first victory.
Mother Nature forced the cancellation of qualifying and, as per the rulebook metric, Heim started 22nd.
Heim quickly rocketed to the front, and at the end of the Hy-Vee Perks 250 on Saturday (June 15), he wound up tying his career-best result with third.
“It’s not hard to get greedy,” Heim told reporters post-race about his desire for the win. “We were the best car yesterday and the track, after it rained, as typical for a repave, so many cars put rubber down. And the track changes so much that the older surface like what’s under the repave, the old Iowa, once it rains, it resets everything and you need to re-learn the racetrack. That beat us a little bit, but at the end of the day, we had a good day for Sam Hunt Racing. Super proud of those guys and Toyota Racing, Yahoo, yes, it’s a really good day for us.”
Had there not been two cautions in the final 25 laps, Heim felt confident that he wisely managed his tires for an outstanding result.
“Saved for the first 20-30 laps, if not more, especially if we went green to the end,” Heim said. “And then you could let it up there at the end and gain some spots but you certainly couldn’t go at the beginning of the runs, at least for us; we’d tear up right fronts.”
Blown tires ended the day for multiple drivers, including playoff-bound drivers Jesse Love and Austin Hill. By starting in the back half of the field, Heim and his Sam Hunt Racing team quickly adjusted to the tire wear.
“The first set went away on us,” Heim stated. “I think as soon as we realized that, which was unanticipated for us, we kind of got a new game plan. Slow down the runs a little bit, just not being super aggressive with the tires. Ours lasted fine throughout the race, with one set that corded a little bit or blistered, whatever you want to call it. Minimal issues after we kind of redid our game plan, I guess if that makes sense.”
“Yeah it was wild for sure,” team owner Sam Hunt told Frontstretch about the day. “We kind of took off like a cannon having to start deep and ran the very top and learned very quickly that the tires just couldn’t really handle it. So we blistered pretty good in the first stage….
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