Heim pulls off a Cup Series shocker in San Diego

Corey Heim pulled off a NASCAR heist on a naval base.

The 23-year-old won Sunday’s race on Naval Base Coronado in San Diego after passing his 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick with three laps to go. Heim, the reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion, is running a limited schedule to prepare for his 2027 rookie season, and Sunday was his sixth start of the year.

It was his first Cup Series race on a road and street course.

“I’m speechless,” Heim said. “We started the race, I think we started 13, and we fell straight back to like 20th, then put on our scuffs from qualifying and struggled just as bad. I don’t know if we made any adjustments, but Bootie [Barker] kept telling me that these were our worst-used sets of tires, and we were going to be just fine. He was right. I couldn’t believe it. We strapped another set of tires on it, and we were just fine. I hit the wall a couple of times, and maybe it knocked some good into the car.

“I have no idea. After stage two, I took a deep breath and was like I have really high expectations coming into this race – it’s an even playing field for me, you don’t see that every day for a young driver like myself – and reset and went after it. I caught a couple breaks with some of the good guys wrecking out, but they don't ask how, just how many.”

Heim and Reddick established themselves at the front of the field off the final restart with 12 laps to go. The two of them separated themselves from the field to battle for the win, and the battle happened inside the final five laps.

The turning point came when Heim challenged Reddick with three laps to go. Reddick crossed over Heim to get back to his left side, but couldn’t make it stick. The two collided, with Heim going wide and Reddick slowing to give Heim the position back.

Heim then drove away. Reddick suffered a flat left-front tire shortly thereafter and fell to 25th in the finishing order.

“We were involved in so much today, so even have a shot at it at the end was really nice,” Reddick said. "I don’t know, I thought I was going to be able to hold him off there, and we kind of struggled with rear tire life all weekend long. I got beat by our own stuff. We’ll figure this out; it definitely stings, but first and foremost, congratulations to Corey.

“I tried to battle back and overdid it. I really did. I ran him straight into the wall, and that wasn’t right. So, I wasn’t going to pass him for the win that way, that’s for sure. Especially a teammate. That’s a real shame. I don’t know if I cut the tire during, before, or after. I’m not really sure. But really needed a good points day and had another bad one. We’ll try to scrap together and have a decent finish in Sonoma.”

The victory came in Heim’s 13th career start.

Bubba Wallace ended up second after Reddick’s misfortune. Wallace rebounded from being two laps down via a penalty when the right front wheel detached from his Toyota on lap 19.

Kyle Larson finished third, Zane Smith finished fourth, and AJ Allmendinger finished fifth. Chris Buescher finished sixth, Ross Chastain finished seventh, Riley Herbst finished eighth, Ryan Blaney finished ninth, and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.

Denny Hamlin finished 14th. He closed to within eight points of Reddick in the championship standings.

Carson Hocevar finished 19th. Hocevar was the leader going into the final restart but was spun by Heim in the chicane before the lap was completed.

Kevin Magnussen finished 27th in his Cup Series debut. Jimmie Johnson finished 28th in his home race.

Christopher Bell finished last after getting out of the car under a lap 12 caution and turning it over to Brent Crews. However, Crews failed to finish due to a mechanical issue.

The stages were won by Ryan Blaney and Ryan Preece.

The complexion of the race changed on lap 32 off a restart. Austin Hill admitted he locked up the rear brakes and ended up running Connor Zilisch into the Turn 1 wall. The two were battling for the lead and it resulted in a multi-car crash.

Zilisch and teammate Shane van Gisbergen, both expected to contend for the win, were eliminated from the race.

There were seven caution flags and 20 lead changes among 13 drivers.

RESULTS