Corey Heim Kicks Off NASCAR Playoffs At Darlington With Eighth Win Of 2025
by Hunter Thomas August 30, 2025 1 commentDARLINGTON, SC – Corey Heim won the Sober of Slammer 200 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday, continuing his season dominance into the NASCAR Playoffs.
Heim, the driver of the TRICON Garage No. 11 Safelite Toyota entered the weekend as the Regular Season champion and on Saturday, he captured an impressive, eighth win of the 2025 season. With just 20 laps to go, polesitter, Layne Riggs overdrove Turn 1 while trying to defend the win and Heim soared by. On the final restart of the day, Heim took off and never looked back.
“I felt like the 34 (Layne Riggs) and the 38 (Chandler Smith) were really good all day,” Heim said. “I could make a little speed on the wall, but it was such a high risk play. If you screw up – I mean you saw so many people have those right front issues. If you scrub the wall, you are in bad shape. So proud of these guys. It feels like I’m in a dream. Eight wins is phenomenal. Crazy to look back on but so much to look forward to. Just really speechless as far as effort.”
Unfortunately for Riggs, after running up front all race long, he finished a disappointing 17th; however, points wise, he departs Darlington with a 38-point cushion to the good of the Round of 8 cutline, so the hiccup wasn’t detrimental to his 2025 championship hopes.
“I’m just disappointed in myself with the way I didn’t really manage the race good enough,” Riggs said. “I thought we had a great truck all day. I felt like I was out of control in the first stage and we still finished second. I think we had a really good piece. We were leading and I ran the bottom in (Turns) three and four a lot, and then it was time to move back to the top and I just didn’t anticipate the lack of grip that I had after running on the bottom for five, six, seven laps in a row. I drove it in just like I did five laps earlier and it just wasn’t enough. I just hate it for my team. They deserve a lot better. They deserved a trophy today in all honesty.”
VIDEO: Layne Riggs Pounds Wall While Leading At Darlington Raceway
Playoff contenders Daniel Hemric, Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski finished behind Heim. Trevor Bayne rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Tanner Gray, Tyler Ankrum, Timmy Hill, Corey Day and Jake Garcia.
Heim won Stage 1 and Riggs won Stage 2.
There were eight lead changes among four drivers. Riggs led a race high of 71 laps, while Heim led 65 laps.
The caution only came out once for an accident, and it occurred on Lap 129, when Kaden Honeycutt and Andres Perez De Lara made contact with each other on the frontstretch. Honeycutt spun and hit the outside wall.
Heim leads the NASCAR Playoffs by 59 points over Riggs.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will visit Bristol Motor Speedway on Thursday, Sept. 11 for the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics. Live coverage will broadcast on FS1 at 8 p.m. ET.
Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com
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