All eyes on Corey Heim as Truck Series Playoffs begin

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- While the 10-driver NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff field does not deny Regular Season Champion Corey Heim -- a series-best seven-time race winner -- certainly holds a commanding presence in the 2025 title run, his competition says it is ready to be put to the championship test. All 10 of the championship-eligible drivers -- Heim, Layne Riggs, Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum, defending series champ Ty Majeski, Grant Enfinger, Rajah Caruth, Kaden Honeycutt and Jake Garcia -- met with the media Tuesday in advance of the seven-race playoff run that begins Aug. 30 at the historic Darlington Raceway. RELATED: Truck Series schedule | Truck Series standings  Heim’s competitors all conceded he’s having a season for the ages and carries an enviable “favorite” tag into the championship run. But starting at Darlington, all bets are off. And the 23-year-old Tricon Garage driver Heim says he’s ready to hoist the champion’s trophy after being favored previously only to finish third (2023) and runner-up (2024) the last two seasons. The driver of the No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota has led 1,125 laps on the year -- nearly double his previous single-season total and almost 900 more than anyone else in the series. Along with seven winner stickers, Heim has also tallied 12 top-five finishes through the 18-race regular season. “I think the main thing for us is that we’ve really connected a lot of the dots on maybe the prior struggles we’ve had so far and got a lot of things to improve in the playoffs still, regardless, as far as keeping that going or keeping the momentum going," said Heim, the only multi-time Regular Season Champion in series history, who has earned a huge 39-point lead over No. 2 seed Layne Riggs going into the postseason. “I feel like for me, there (were) some struggle areas last year that kind of lingered throughout the year and we never quite got past that. But we were able to hone in on that in the offseason and sort of clear those up as far as maybe some packages that we brought to specific race tracks that didn’t work, and maybe some pit road stuff. "My personal development, as far as my driving style at some places, I feel like just within my 11 team and within Tricon and Toyota, we’ve done a great job of just honing in on the things that maybe didn’t work throughout the year and lingered and just kind of fixing that for 2025 and hoping to extend that into the playoffs as well.” Heim’s amazing season statistics are not unnoticed by his competition. MORE: Meet all 10 Craftsman Truck Series Playoff drivers “The 11 truck is in his own zip code most weekends," said Front Row Motorsports’ Smith, a two-race winner this season and ranked third entering the playoff stretch. Even so -- and not surprisingly -- every single driver said Tuesday he was prepared to give Heim a run for his money. “Of course, there’s a lot of pressure, but I feel like I’m ready for it," said Riggs, driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, adding, “No Hail Marys in the playoffs, that’s the goal for us."