NAVAL BASE CORONADO, Calif. — For Corey Heim, the clock struck early.“Heim Time,” as it’s known when the 23-year-old wins in NASCAR’s lower-tier Truck Series, wasn’t supposed to begin in earnest in the premier Cup Series until he joined 23XI Racing on a full-time basis next season.But there was Heim on Sunday, tapping his wrist — a la NBA star Damian Lillard’s “Dame Time” celebration — in one of NASCAR’s most improbable wins in recent times.This was only Heim’s 13th career Cup Series start, and it came at one of the most challenging tracks in NASCAR history: a 3.4-mile street course around the rough roads and runways of Naval Base Coronado.The young Georgia native outlasted all the Cup Series veterans on NASCAR’s first-ever race on an active military base.
COREY HEIM IS A NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNER! pic.twitter.com/Px3nbOSYjx
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 22, 2026Heim won NASCAR’s Truck Series championship last year in dominant fashion, but had no home for this season. He has been waiting for a Cup seat to open up for two years and is running part-time in Trucks and Cup this season before replacing Riley Herbst at 23XI next year.His talent has been evident, though, which is why 23XI co-owners Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin moved to lock him up on their roster. And to win his first career race, Heim had to pass 23XI’s lead driver.Tyler Reddick has won five times this year and appeared to be en route to a sixth, but Heim caught the Northern California driver and passed him with four laps to go.Their battle involved contact that ended up with Reddick sustaining a flat tire, but Reddick said afterward Heim raced him cleanly and did nothing wrong. Rather, it was Reddick who had initiated the contact, he said.Reddick finished 25th and his one-time triple-digit points lead over Denny Hamlin slipped to just eight points.Big crash waylays heavy favoriteAnytime NASCAR visits a road course, all eyes are on Shane van Gisbergen, the overwhelming favorite to run away with the victory. And for much of Sunday, all indications were that this was his race to win and everyone else would have to fight it out for second-best.This was until the complexion of the race flipped dramatically when Austin Hill locked up his brakes on a restart in Stage 2, pushing Connor Zilisch into the wall at the exit of Turn 1 and stacking up the field behind him, including van Gisbergen, who had nowhere to go and slammed into the slowing Hill.
