Corey Heim is doing double-duty at his favorite race track
Corey Heim didn’t have sole discretion in picking the race track for his first NASCAR Cup Series start of the season, but no doubt his choice would have been the same.
Kansas Speedway is Heim’s favorite track, and he’s primed for Sunday’s Advent Health 400 at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“I don’t think I really had a pick for my races for this year, but I was able to sit down with 23XI Racing and kind of discuss what makes sense,” said Heim, who will drive the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota on Sunday. “With this being my opening Cup race on the 2025 campaign for myself, being able to run it in 2024 was a big reason why I was able to knock the rust off a little bit.
“The last time I raced a Cup car was pretty close to a year ago—I think it was in June of last year (June 30 at Nashville Superspeedway). It was probably important for me to come out and not look like a fish out of water the first time back and be able to lean on some prior experience and come back to Kansas. I had a little bit of say myself, but I think it just made sense on both sides.”
Heim was pressed into service last year as a substitute for LEGACY Motor Club driver Erik Jones, who suffered a compression fracture at Talladega Superspeedway. He made his Cup debut at Dover, followed by races at Kansas (still subbing for Jones) and Nashville (for 23XI).
Heim swept the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races at Kansas Speedway last year, making the track the logical choice for his first Cup race of 2025.
“I think I feel really comfortable when I come here, and I think that is just the prior experience I had here,” Heim said. “I’ve got probably six or more ARCA races here (with two wins and five top fives) and six or more Truck races here. Just that experience alone makes me feel comfortable and very prepared coming into this race. I feel like there are not so many things that I’m having to soak up during the week and prepare on, like, for instance, Dover last year—my first Cup race ever.
“I had been there once in an ARCA car, I think, before that race—just the extra stress it took to prepare for that race and be ready before, and all of those things that I was learning about the race track, added on to being in a Cup car for the first time, was really tough. Kansas is a place that I have a lot of laps, and I think that helps with my comfort.”
Carson Hocevar discussed mistake with Ryan Preece after Texas race
Carson Hocevar acknowledged on Saturday that the wreck that cost him dearly in last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway was the result of a miscalculation on his part.
On Lap 237, Hocevar ran Ryan Preece into the outside wall off Turn 2 in a crash that also collected Cody Ware. Preece fell out of the race in 29th place. Hocevar was able to continue and finished 24th.
The driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet discussed the incident with Preece earlier this week
“I thought it was very productive,” Hocevar said. “I thought he heard my point of view, and I heard his, right? I think we have a really good understanding to go forward. I just kind of explained my positioning of it.
“I (had) just passed the 17 (Chris Buescher) and I really didn’t expect the 60 (Preece) to be a factor in the equation. I started unwinding the wheel to get out of (Todd Gilliland’s) wake and try to be on offense. I found myself on defense, in the wake; crossing… and now (Preece is) on my door. It just shocked me.
“I just explained that I wasn’t trying to put him in a bad spot and be aggressive. I tried to unwind the wheel and track out to the wall, and I didn’t expect a car to be there. That’s on me for not predicting it and not expecting it.”
A day earlier, Hocevar had earned the first Cup Series pole position of his career. He led the first 22 laps and finished sixth in each of the first two stages.
The end result, however, was a learning experience.
“I wasn’t looking in my mirror when I felt like I should have been,” Hocevar said. “Knowing if you were to rewind the clock, if I knew the result, I would do something different. But at the time, I felt like I knew the situation, and I would probably do the same thing again.
“But knowing the result, (if) I get in that spot again, you’re going to be more cognizant and aware of that.”
Team Penske is ahead of schedule versus last year’s pace
Last season, it was a productive tire test at North Wilkesboro that marked a change in Team Penske’s fortunes in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The end result was a third championship for driver Joey Logano and a third straight for the Penske organization.
This year, Team Penske is already ahead of schedule. Austin Cindric won at Talladega two weeks ago, and Logano triumphed at Texas last Sunday.
In addition, Josh Berry won for Penske affiliate Wood Brothers Racing in the fifth race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I think last year we had the new nose with the Ford, and it took everybody a little bit to get rolling on what it liked and what it needed,” said Ryan Blaney, who won the Cup title in 2023 between two of Logano’s championships.
“That’s a big change from what we had in ’23. This year, we didn’t really have any changes to the car, so we were just kind of ahead of the game. We’re just up to speed faster, with what we figured out during the summer last year that led to the end, and we’ve really just kind of refined that, what was working.
“It’s been nice to have really fast cars this year. Hopefully, we (Blaney’s No. 12 team) can get in Victory Lane soon. I’ve been really happy with how we’ve been performing. It hasn’t really worked out for us.”
Flat left-rear tires were an issue in NASCAR Cup Series practice
Early in NASCAR Cup Series final practice, four drivers had problems with flat left-rear tires.
Ty Gibbs experienced that issue after setting the fastest lap in Group 1 at 180.144 mph (29.976 seconds).
As practice proceeded, Shane van Gisbergen, Brad Keselowski and Chase Briscoe all had flat left-rears during the course of their runs.
The current left-side tire code is being used for the first time at Kansas, featuring a new compound designed to produce more wear and increased lap time fall-off.
However, Cup teams have already run the same tire combination in use at Kansas at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami, Darlington and Texas—without similar incidents.
Teams typically run their tire pressures below Goodyear’s recommendations to maximize grip and speed as the heat in the tires builds up.
“We’re all just pushing the cars to the limit,” Keselowski said. “We didn’t think it was that close, but we’ll work on it and get it better for Sunday.”
–NASCAR Wire Service–