Corey Heim wins rain-shortened Martinsville Truck fiasco

In 1995 and 2021, Martinsville Speedway was the site of NASCAR‘s rain tyre oval tests as the sanctioning body looked for a way to get racing in during wet weather. On Friday, the Craftsman Truck Series got to put the damp weather package to action.

Unlike “true” rain racing, which is not possible at ovals due to banking placing too much burden on the tyres, the damp weather package is intended to allow races to take place on moderately wet surfaces without having to wait for the track drying process to finish. In the case of Friday’s Truck race, the trucks equipped with wet tyres ran single file during pace laps to expedite the drying process, though their impact on the racing was minimal as the rain quickly subsided. The race start had been delayed due to lightning.

With rain not playing a major chaos factor, the Truck Series—much maligned for its inexperienced drivers and high rate of accidents—proceeded to fill that gap as over half of the race was run under caution due to wrecks. While Stage #1 only saw a competition caution followed by the stage break, the second segment along saw four wrecks.

The final crash on lap 117 came when Carson Hocevar attempted to run three-wide while racing Taylor Gray and Matt DiBenedetto. Contact between Hocevar, who has started to accumulate some flack for his aggressive driving style, and Gray prompted a retaliatory strike by Hocevar as he clipped Gray, only to spin himself out. The rain returned during the ensuing yellow flag.

With the race well over its halfway point, NASCAR elected to end it after 124 of 200 laps. Corey Heim, who took the lead from former boss Kyle Busch on lap 43, was the leader at the time to secure his third career win and first for TRICON Garage.

“I just kept my eyes forward,” said Heim. “I just had to stay concentrated and just make sure I had a perfect day with these guys behind you. It’s really hard to hold them off unless you are perfect, and I think we did just that.”

TRICON team-mate William Sawalich, the current ARCA Menards Series East points leader, finished ninth in his Truck début. Other newcomer finishes included Conner Jones in seventeenth, Memphis Villarreal in twenty-fourth, and Jonathan Shafer in twenty-ninth. Brad Pérez placed thirty-fifth in his first NASCAR oval start.

While somewhat skewed by the shortened distance, all thirty-six trucks completed the race for just the second time in series history after the 2022 Bristol Dirt Race.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	4	11	Corey Heim	TRICON Garage	Toyota	124	Running
2	2	51	Kyle Busch*	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Running
3	1	38	Zane Smith	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	124	Running
4	12	98	Ty Majeski	ThorSport Racing	Ford	124	Running
5	9	15	Tanner Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	124	Running
6	3	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Ford	124	Running
7	5	25	Matt DiBenedetto	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet	124	Running
8	24	17	Taylor Gray	TRICON Garage	Toyota	124	Running
9	22	1	William Sawalich	TRICON Garage	Toyota	124	Running
10	8	4	Chase Purdy	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Running
11	19	2	Nick Sanchez	Rev Racing	Chevrolet	124	Running
12	25	41	Ross Chastain*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Running
13	18	35	Jake Garcia	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	124	Running
14	10	23	Grant Enfinger	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	124	Running
15	6	19	Christian Eckes	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Chevrolet	124	Running
16	31	02	Kris Wright	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Running
17	26	9	Colby Howard	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Running
18	15	66	Conner Jones	ThorSport Racing	Ford	124	Running
19	28	56	Timmy Hill	Hill Motorsports	Toyota	124	Running
20	27	13	Hailie Deegan	ThorSport Racing	Ford	124	Running
21	36	5	Dean Thompson	TRICON Garage	Toyota	124	Running
22	23	32	Bret Holmes	Bret Holmes Racing	Chevrolet	124	Running
23	30	12	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	124	Running
24	29	46	Memphis Villarreal	G2G Racing	Toyota	124	Running
25	16	24	Rajah Caruth	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	124	Running
26	11	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Ford	124	Running
27	14	16	Tyler Ankrum	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota	124	Running
28	17	4	Kaden Honeycutt	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Chevrolet	123	Running
29	33	30	Jonathan Shafer	On Point Motorsports	Toyota	123	Running
30	13	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota	123	Running
31	21	43	Daniel Dye	GMS Racing	Chevrolet	123	Running
32	20	45	Lawless Alan	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	122	Running
33	32	33	Mason Massey	Reaume Brothers Racing	Ford	122	Running
34	7	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet	122	Running
35	34	20	Brad Pérez*	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet	118	Running
36	35	22	Stephen Mallozzi	AM Racing	Ford	116	Running
DNQ		90	Justin Carroll	TC Motorsports	Chevrolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points