SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Corey Heim stood on the frontstretch at Indianapolis Motor Speedway drained from the effort it took to win one of the NASCAR Cup Series’ crown jewel races — the Brickyard 400.
In a race that produced an unexpected winner and an unexpected millionaire, Heim held off Christopher Bell and Joey Logano over the final 34-lap green-flag run on Sunday to win his second Cup Series race in his 15th start.
Not bad for a part-timer who won’t step into a full-time seat with 23XI Racing until next year. Heim, who won at Naval Base Coronado in June, was driving the No. 67 Toyota for the eighth time this season in his first visit to the Brickyard.
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“Yeah, that was a damn handful,” Heim said of the final run. “I was hanging on for dear life once the shade went down and the pace picked up. My car got really loose. And I had never really been in a lot of clean air throughout the day, so that was the hardest I’ve ever fought in my life to just make sure I focused on exits and kept them (Bell and Logano) in dirty air.
“I’m pretty out of breath. That was a workout. It was a dream come true. Winning at the Brickyard. That’s unbelievable. Caught a break early with the pit cycle. And just executed all day. Made no mistakes.”
In the finals of the Cup Series In-Season Challenge, 25th-seeded Todd Gilliland took advantage of third-seeded Ryan Blaney’s unfortunate wreck on Lap 120 to win the $1-million winner-take-all prize by two positions, 24th to Blaney’s 26th.
Blaney was comfortably ahead in the race for the Challenge bounty when his No. 12 Ford turned off the nose of John Hunter Nemechek’s Toyota to ignite an accident that collected nine cars.
IN-SEASON CHALLENGE: Recap championship round at Indy
“It feels really good,” said Gilliland, who survived five rounds to prevail in the Challenge. “Obviously, we wish we ran a little bit better than 24th today, but we did what we had to do. Really, that was the name of our game all the way throughout this Challenge. We just barely skated by.
“We were obviously a bit lucky, but we still stuck out these races. We did the best we could, and luckily it was good enough, just barely every single round. It’s a big prize. One million dollars going to the team. That’s just massive.”
The restart on Lap 127 — after the nine-car wreck that ruined Blaney’s chances in the In-Season Challenge — made all the difference in the outcome of the race.
Leader Denny Hamlin chose the preferred inside lane, while Heim picked the outside. Hamlin had two of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Bell and Chase Briscoe, behind him on the bottom row, but they failed to organize a coordinated push.
Heim, on the other hand, got a strong, sustained shove from Logano in the top lane and barely cleared Hamlin before slipping in front of his 23XI Racing team owner and stalling his momentum. Hamlin fell to fifth in the running order behind Heim, Bell, Logano and Briscoe, and that’s the way the race ended more than 30 laps later.
In the final green-flag run, Heim slipped noticeably only once — entering Turn 1 on Lap 198 — and allowed Bell to close within a car-length.
But by keeping Bell’s No. 20 Toyota in dirty air, Heim extended his advantage over the final two trips around the 2.5-mile track and crossed the famous “Yard of Bricks” 0.287 seconds ahead of the JGR driver, who finished second for the sixth time this season without a win.
Bell had nothing but praise for the 24-year-old race winner.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get there at all,” Bell said. “My guys were telling me he was going loose. I knew really that was going to be my only opportunity, was a mistake from him. I knew whatever it was, 35 laps, was a very long run. I just needed one bobble. If he had one bobble, I was going to be able to get there.
“Yeah, he did a great job. He showed excellent mental toughness. Put together 35 really good laps. I didn’t have an opportunity.”
Hamlin rued the restart that cost him the chance to win the only Crown Jewel race that has eluded him.
“Yeah, everyone is trying to fight to win the race,” said Hamlin, who extended his series lead to 84 points over 10th-place finisher Tyler Reddick. “When you’re clear by an inch, you’re going to take that inch. It’s really more on us and the 20 (Bell) and the 19 (Briscoe) of just not orchestrating good pushes there. We came detached at the wrong time.
“I thought the 20 obviously was on board with getting us the push. It was way too early before the restart zone. I can’t go till we get to the restart zone. He said that Briscoe was on him way, way early or laying back, one of the two.
“Yeah, that’s how you lose ’em. These restarts, when everyone kind of knows when you’re going to go, it’s about the pushes. That’s essentially where I got the lead from the 67 the restart before (on Lap 120). Just came back the other way around. I maybe was in there just a hair into Turn 2. (Heim) shut the door. I mean, yeah, everyone’s fighting for a big Brickyard victory.”
Two other factors helped Heim’s cause. He was on pit road on Lap 44 when, Kyle Larson’s wreck caused the first caution. Gaining spots as the field slowed for the yellow, Heim finished second in Stage 1 after a one-lap dash.
After a debris caution on Lap 114, Heim was first off pit road after running long in Stage 2 and needing a shorter stop for fuel. Though Hamlin regained the lead on the Lap 120 restart, Heim took it back on the restart that proved decisive.
Brad Keselowski finished sixth, followed by Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, pole winner Carson Hocevar and Reddick. Ty Gibbs won the first stage, led twice for 46 laps — second only to Heim’s 58 — and clinched a spot in the Chase with a 12th-place finish.
Four races remain before the 16-driver Chase field is set.
Rotten luck continued to follow reigning series champion Kyle Larson, who maneuvered himself into a race-leading position with an early pit stop on Lap 28, only to have his strategy fall apart thanks to a blown left-rear tire 17 laps later.
When the tire lost air near the end of the backstretch, Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet backed into the outside wall, severely damaging the car.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” Larson said after his release from the infield care center. “To go from 10th to the lead on a good start and race strategy set ourselves up well to gain a lot of points there and set ourselves up well to maintain that track position the rest of the race.
“It’s a bummer but just a part of racing … I had no warning. When I lifted, I felt it drop and spun.”
MORE: Cup standings | Cup schedule
Larson, coming off a 15th-place finish at North Wilkesboro after consecutive 34th-place result at Chicagoland and Atlanta’s EchoPark Speedway, fell out of the race in last (39th) place.
On a star-crossed day for Hendrick Motorsports, Chase Elliott fared little better than his teammate. Racing in close quarters with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 60, Elliott slammed the outside wall just beyond the Turn 2 exit.
Attempts to repair the car on pit road proved futile, forcing Elliott to drive the No. 9 Chevrolet to the garage. Elliott returned to the track 41 laps down and finished 37th.
The Cup Series takes a week off and then heads to Iowa Speedway on Aug. 9 (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with four races to go until The Chase.
STAGE 2
Ross Chastain took the Stage 2 checkered flag of Sunday’s Brickyard 400 (watch live on TNT Sports, HBO Max) under caution after Daniel Dye crashed in Turn 3 on Lap 96.
Tempers flared as the continued saga of the Carson Hocevar-Corey Heim rivalry wrote its latest chapter.
Similarly to Stage 1, the No. 67 23XI Racing driver ran the stage long while most of the field came down pit road during the green-flag cycle. Hocevar came off pit road just behind Heim, who led the race at the time, trapping the No. 77 Spire Motorsports driver a lap down. Hocevar tried getting around the No. 67 early on fresh tires, but Heim threw a block to prevent the occurrence.
As Heim came to pit road for service, Hocevar came down the track off Turn 4 and buzzed near the No. 67, giving a No. 1 gesture out the window to Heim.
Completing the top 10 in the second frame: Todd Gilliland, Ty Gibbs, Denny Hamlin, Heim, Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell, Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez.
Early in Stage 2, Chase Elliott went to the garage after hitting the wall down the backstretch of the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The race claimed another Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after the No. 9 made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 60, turning Elliott into the wall. The contact bent a toe link on the right-rear of the No. 9, forcing the team to make extra repairs behind the wall.
MORE: Stage 2 results
Ty Gibbs led the field back to green for the start of Stage 2 after claiming the Stage 1 checkered flag.
STAGE 1
Gibbs took the Stage 1 checkered flag in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway following a one-lap shootout to the line on Lap 50.
A dramatic twist unfolded late in the stage on Lap 45 as Kyle Larson, who was on his way to cycling to the lead and the stage victory after opening pit stops, had a tire go down entering Turn 3. The No. 5 Hendrick Chevrolet then spun and crashed into the outside retaining wall, bringing Larson’s day to an abrupt end. He entered Sunday’s race sixth in points.
MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Gibbs clinch Stage 1 win
Corey Heim, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar and William Byron finished top five in the opening frame, while Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher and Tyler Reddick completed the top 10 and those collecting stage points to open the crown-jewel event.
Contributing: Staff Report