Corey Heim wins his 8th race of the season in Darlington

Corey Heim tames Darlington in Truck Series Playoffs opener – TRICON Garage Photo

NASCAR Wire Reports – Although the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series changed the clock from the regular season to the playoffs, it was still “Heim Time” on Saturday at Darlington Raceway.

Pulling away after a restart on Lap 134 of 147, Corey Heim of Marietta, Georgia won the playoff-opening Sober or Slammer 200 at the challenging 1.366-mile South Carolina track. The win was Heim’s eighth of the year, one short of Greg Biffle’s record nine-victory season in 1999.

Heim crossed the finish line 0.766 seconds ahead of fellow playoff driver Daniel Hemric to collect his first victory at the “Lady in Black” and the 19th of his career. With the win, Heim earned automatic advancement to the Round of 8.

The break at the end of Stage 2 proved fortunate for the race winner. Heim felt a tire losing air shortly before the end of the stage, but he survived the stage in second place and brought the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota to pit road before the tire went flat.

“Lucky it wasn’t a complete blowout — otherwise we would have been in trouble,” Heim said. “I could make a little bit of speed on the wall, but it was such a high-risk play if you scrubbed it. You saw so many people have those right-front issues.”

“I put a little pressure on the 34 (Riggs), and he got into it, and we were able to take advantage of it,” said Heim. “… It feels like I’m in a dream. Eight wins this year is phenomenal, man. It’s great to look back on, but we’ve also got so much to look forward to.”

Playoff drivers Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski, the defending series champion, finished third and fourth, respectively — Enfinger with a consistent problem-free performance, Majeski after overcoming a flat right-front tire with a wave-around.

Trevor Bayne, running his first NASCAR race since 2023, came home fifth, followed by rookie Tanner Gray, playoff driver Tyler Ankrum, Timmy Hill, Corey Day and playoff driver Jake Garcia.

The complexion of the Truck Series Playoffs took a dramatic turn early in the race. Starting next to pole-winning Front Row Motorsports teammate Riggs, Chandler Smith led the first 10 laps, but on the 11th circuit, he slapped the outside wall and cut his right-front tire.

Attempts to repair serious damage to the No. 38 Ford proved futile, and Smith retired from the race in 30th place after completing 14 laps.

“Made a mistake on my end today,” Smith acknowledged. “Just got a little too greedy trying to run the fence a little too hard… When you get into that hard, it suckers you in, you cut a tire, and you’re done for the day.”

The early exit left Smith two points behind Garcia for the last spot in the Round of 8.

“We’ve got two races left,” Smith said. “(We’re) going back to Bristol, where we won earlier in the year. Then we’re going to New Hampshire for the last race in this round, where I’ve been really strong in the past as well.”

Honeycutt fell to 10th in the standings, seven points below the current cutline.

Hemric, on the other hand, leaves Darlington 33 points to the good.

“We’ve been wanting so badly to have execution like that,” Hemric said. “That was our cleanest race of the season.”

The Truck Series returns to action on Thursday, Sept. 11, at Bristol Motor Speedway (8 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).