SPEEDWAY, Ind. — When it’s time to shine, look no further than Corey Heim.
23XI Racing’s part-time phenom has stolen the show this summer, erupting onto the scene to win two of the summer’s biggest NASCAR Cup Series races, first in the inaugural race at Naval Base Coronado and again in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“For a part-time driver, it looks like they are doing a pretty great job,” said Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI, ninth on NASCAR’s all-time Cup Series wins list.
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Heim has firmly established himself as NASCAR’s ‘Next One’ — a can’t-miss prospect who Hamlin bet on in 2024 by signing him to a driver-development contract. It’s taken time for Heim’s opportunities at the sport’s top level to materialize. But after 15 starts, he’s proven that patience is indeed a virtue.
“On Corey specifically, we’ve really got to tip our hat to his maturity and his discipline,” Dave Rogers, competition director of 23XI Racing, told NASCAR.com in Victory Lane. “You know, turning down full-time rides — he could have been in cars full time this year. He chose to be patient, do it right, come through our development program and prepare for each of these events very thoroughly. And I think we’re showing that it’s paying off, so he deserves a lot of credit for that discipline.”
With a full season of Cup Series competition awaiting him in 2027, when he’ll slot into the No. 35 car full time for 23XI, Heim has already won more this season than many of the Cup Series’ best, including second-place finisher Christopher Bell and third-place driver Joey Logano, a three-time Cup champion. To do so on the sport’s biggest stages of 2026 — including laps led in his Daytona 500 debut in February — signifies a mental prowess that allows Heim to perhaps be the Cup Series’ first turnkey prospect in the Next Gen era.
“Just a lot of prep, man. A lot of mental prep, a lot of physical prep,” Heim said. “Just really happy to be a part of this organization of 23XI and Toyota. They’re at the top of their game right now, and once again, talking about what I said earlier, if I can just execute and do what I need to do, the cars have so much speed right now that it just speaks for themselves. And I’ve done a not-so-great job at some of the races. Like Nashville is one that sticks out to me. I was probably destined to finish anywhere between second and fifth that race, if not maybe getting lucky on that last restart and winning the race, so that was a tough one. That was like our best shot at having a good run, and ever since then, I’ve just kind of elevated my prep and game to make sure I don’t make these like vital mistakes throughout the race anymore. It just takes 100% out of me, and I’m trying to get it.”
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The stats in his three starts since Nashville Superspeedway support his theory, with two wins and a ninth-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway as evidence. Across those eight starts, Heim is averaging 28.5 points per race — a clip that outpaces Chase Briscoe (28.3), who sits seventh in the series points standings.
What’s more notable about Heim’s development is his obvious versatility. His victories have come at two vastly different styles of tracks — one a street course in its inaugural year with myriad unknowns, another at a tried-and-true oval that teams have decades of experience at.
“It’s two totally different race tracks that we’ve been able to execute on,” Heim said. “Just being here at the Brickyard just means so much. Even just being able to start the race, I remember getting goosebumps on the grid with the flyover — not even thinking about the result of the race and whatever it would be in a couple hours from then. But yeah, to come here and win, it’s absolutely surreal. I mean, I just couldn’t fathom telling myself as a little kid that I was going to be a crown-jewel winner one day. So to sit here and be able to soak that all in, it’s a really special feeling for sure.”
Crew chief Bootie Barker has emphasized Heim’s talent and work ethic in his short time working with Heim. But even he was impressed with how poised the 24-year-old remained with championship-caliber drivers breathing down his neck in the stretch run of the Brickyard 400.
“This is the most difficult race to win,” Barker said. “For Indy, you must have everything right and make no mistakes, and you have to execute the whole weekend. So even when he got the (lead) back, I knew here the problem is if you’re in traffic, to be good, you tend to get tight, so then when you get up front, it’s going to be loose. It’s going to be the same for everybody, and (there’s) not so much I can do about it. But in other words, when he was in position, he knew how disciplined he was able to (be). The mental fortitude to nail every corner — it was difficult. I’m telling you, what he just did was incredibly difficult. But that’s kind of what it takes.”
Lurking in his tire tracks, Bell was waiting on a mistake from Heim to pounce for the lead. Heim had one notable slide through Turn 4 that allowed Bell to close the gap, but the run never properly materialized.
“Corey put together a magnificent last run,” Bell said. “He was loose. My guys were saying he was loose. I could kind of see him wiggling a little bit. He did a great job, and he didn’t make a mistake and won the race. He did good.”
MORE: Heim, Hocevar duel at the Brickyard
Despite making 14 fewer starts than his competitors this season, the reigning NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion remains plenty busy even when he isn’t slated to run a Cup race on a given week.
“He’s one of the hardest-working drivers in the business, so he capitalizes on every opportunity,” Rogers said. “He doesn’t sit around for two weeks and then prepare the third. He’s preparing all three weeks between events, or however many weeks he has. He does drive the TRD wheelforce transfuser car, but those tests are limited. He really spends a lot of time in Toyota’s DIL simulator, so a lot of sim time, which puts him hand-in-hand with our race engineers. He’s getting a lot of exposure to our race engineers, which makes him very familiar with this setup and how the car is going to handle when he gets there. I dare say he probably has more simulator laps than anyone when we unload, so he’s capitalizing on the time that he has available to him, which I’m not convinced that all drivers would do that.”
With such a marvelous start to his Cup career, the expectations for his full-time opportunity will be sky high. Heim has remained firm on not letting external factors impact his preparation or execution, exuding a confident but steady demeanor with results to back it. But right now, the ceiling for his success seems “unlimited,” Rogers said.
“Right now, if you look at it, we have a really good program with Toyota and the Joe Gibbs Toyotas and 23XI Toyotas,” Rogers said. “It’s really fast, and it doesn’t always stay that way, right? We know that the other OEMs are going to work really hard, and they’re going to find an advantage. And this sport goes in cycles, and right now it’s our turn. So you can’t forecast too far, other than knowing that the Hendricks of the world are working very hard to catch us. But right now our cars are very strong, and Corey has a tremendous amount of talent. If we keep doing what we’re supposed to do, and he keeps doing what he’s supposed to do, I don’t think there is a ceiling. I think he can do great things in this sport.”