Corey Heim is probably the top Toyota prospect right now, and Joe Gibbs Racing is of course the top Toyota team.
Makes sense for them to get together, right?
But they haven’t, and it appears they won’t any time soon, all over a feud that happened in the ARCA Menards Series.
It’s no secret that there was no love lost between Heim and Ty Gibbs, grandson of owner Joe Gibbs, when they competed for the ARCA championship in 2021. Both prodigies put up legendary numbers in a clash-of-titans title fight. But along the way, they did everything in the book to piss each other off.
In the 20-race ARCA season, there were at least three races with incidents between the duo — all kinds of beating and banging that came to a head when Gibbs dumped Heim for the win at Winchester Speedway.
Added to it were the post-race interviews. Early in the season, Gibbs called out Heim more than once. At some point it switched over to Heim calling out Gibbs while the latter deflected all questions about the feud with Jesus-related answers.
I don’t think you can say one driver was in the right and the other was in the wrong. It was just great, entertaining racing between two talented young guns. And both were 18 years old, so they were young, dumb and full of … potential. They were each other’s main competition for an entire season, so of course things got heated.
But the common belief around the garage is that the reason Heim has never driven and will never drive a JGR car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series is because of that feud with Gibbs. I’m not sure if that’s Heim not wanting to do so or if that’s JGR not offering him a seat, but I have my assumptions.
Twelve different drivers have piloted a JGR car in at least one Xfinity race this year. You’d think Heim would at least get one race in there. The counter to that is Heim doesn’t bring funding. But that argument doesn’t hold up because he didn’t even get to fill in when the team suspended Aric Almirola.
My question is simple: Why is Toyota not stepping in? With 10 career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins and a great shot at the championship this year, Heim has proven he is ready to move up. Heck, in just a partial schedule, he nearly won Sam Hunt Racing its first Xfinity race last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Maybe Heim could go full time with Hunt next year, but while that team does a great…
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