{"id":36862,"date":"2025-08-17T22:49:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36862"},"modified":"2025-08-17T22:49:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:49:35","slug":"corey-heim-strikes-again-as-truck-series-playoffs-set-following-richmond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/17\/corey-heim-strikes-again-as-truck-series-playoffs-set-following-richmond\/","title":{"rendered":"Corey Heim Strikes Again as Truck Series Playoffs Set Following Richmond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following Friday night&#8217;s Truck Series race at Richmond Raceway.\u00a0 The 10 drivers who will race for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/08\/nascar-craftsman-truck-series-playoff-outlook-bubble-has-gotten-interesting\/\" target=\"_self\">2025 Truck Series Championship<\/a> have been decided. Most pretty much already knew they were locked in. However, a battle between teammates for the final spot certainly took some spotlight during the Eero 250. Even that couldn&#8217;t put a stop to the major momentum that Corey Heim continues to show off every week. Let&#8217;s take a look back at Friday night&#8217;s race.<\/p>\n<h2>Corey Heim Strikes Again as Truck Series Playoffs Set Following Richmond<\/h2>\n<p>Heim started the day from the pole for what felt like the 100th time this season. He quickly raced away to the lead, only for second-place starter and defending series champion, Ty Majeski, to show off some real speed in his No. 98 Ford. The way he was able to pass Heim after the first 17 laps was pretty neat, and it clearly showed that Majeski was looking to get a win before the playoffs, even though he had already locked up his spot in the playoffs on points.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_36869\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36869\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-36869 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2230360985-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2230360985-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2230360985-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2230360985-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2230360985-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2230360985-2048x1360.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36869\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">RICHMOND, VIRGINIA &#8211; AUGUST 15: Corey Heim, driver of the #11 Safelite Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series eero 250 at Richmond Raceway on August 15, 2025 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Samuel Corum\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This race quickly became a battle between Heim and Majeski throughout the night. Jake Garcia, a teammate of Majeskis&#8217;, was also in the fight of his life during the night as he had the final playoff spot to start the night. He was going to have to hold off his teammate Ben Rhodes, a two-time series champion. Despite some strategy plays, Rhodes wasn&#8217;t going to get in over Garcia. Jake scored enough points to make his cushion 21 points, and even if Rhodes could get past him, by late in the race, it wasn&#8217;t going to be enough.<\/p>\n<h3>Matt Crafton Needs to Retire<\/h3>\n<p>Thorsport was looking for any momentum and also their first win of the 2025 season. They certainly had confidence in Majeski to get the job done. I mean, he did put his truck out front and was the better truck than Heim on Friday. Certainly not something that has been said much this season. At the end of the night, Ty led 143 laps, but an incident on lap 201 took away Majeski&#8217;s shot at winning the race.<\/p>\n<p>Fellow Truck Champion and the series&#8217;s most experienced driver, Matt Crafton, made contact with Ty, and it sent him spinning from the lead. It was a very questionable moment for the 49-year-old driver. Not to mention Crafton and Majeski are teammates. I get it, Matt&#8217;s older and hasn&#8217;t had much lately. Not to mention, he hasn&#8217;t won since 2020. But for him to cost his teammate a chance at winning.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ty Majeski Crashes While Leading | 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series @ Richmond\" width=\"540\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LAsOM5nceHw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That was unnecessary. That&#8217;s the kind of thing that says you need to hang it up. I mean, what was he even thinking? It was a very questionable moment, to say the least, on Friday. I get it, Majeski rebounded, but he wasn&#8217;t able to catch Heim. Corey scored his seventh win of the season and has all the momentum as the Trucks head to Darlington in a few weeks to begin their playoffs.<\/p>\n<h3>A Look at the Playoff Bracket<\/h3>\n<p>With that being said, it&#8217;s time to take a look at how the 10-driver field looks for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-ca\/sports\/motorsports\/the-official-2025-nascar-truck-playoff-grid\/ar-AA1KClxw?ocid=BingNewsSerp\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2025 Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Corey Heim 2065\u00a0 (7 wins)<\/li>\n<li>Layne Riggs 2026 (2 wins)<\/li>\n<li>Chandler Smith 2019 (2 wins)<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Hemric 2011 (1 win)<\/li>\n<li>Tyler Ankrum 2010 (1 win)<\/li>\n<li>Ty Majeski 2010<\/li>\n<li>Grant Enfinger 2007<\/li>\n<li>Rajah Caruth 2005 (1 win)<\/li>\n<li>Kaden Honeycutt 2003<\/li>\n<li>Jake Garcia 2002<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">10 drivers. 7 races. One champion. <\/p>\n<p>The field is set for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoffs! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8dfwX2vTX1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/8dfwX2vTX1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NASCAR_Trucks\/status\/1956573404917551264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The action when they get to Darlington will certainly be high-speed. It certainly looks like it&#8217;s Heim&#8217;s to lose at this point. He&#8217;s got all the momentum.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/08\/nascar-craftsman-truck-series-playoff-outlook-bubble-has-gotten-interesting\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff Outlook: Bubble Has Gotten Interesting<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Main Image:\u00a0<\/strong>Chris Graythen, Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Recording Date: 8\/15\/2025<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following Friday night&#8217;s Truck Series race at Richmond Raceway.\u00a0 The 10 drivers who will race for the 2025 Truck Series Championship have been decided. Most pretty much already knew they were locked in. However, a battle between teammates for the final spot certainly took some spotlight during the Eero 250. Even that couldn&#8217;t put a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5169,"featured_media":36871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,1666],"tags":[2039,331,270,1241,1481,1132],"class_list":["post-36862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nascar","category-nascar-camping-world-truck-series","tag-corey-heim","tag-matt-crafton","tag-nascar-playoffs","tag-nascar-truck-series","tag-richmond-raceway","tag-ty-majeski"],"modified_by":"Hayden Murdock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36862"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36872,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862\/revisions\/36872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}