AVONDALE, Ariz. – Corey Heim capped off an impressive season with his 12^th win of the year and the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship.

Heim swept Stages 1 and 2 in the No. 11 Safelite Toyota, and he was well on his way to winning the title while running in second behind Layne Riggs, when a caution came out with two laps to go. Heim came to pit road and took four tires as opposed to NASCAR Playoffs rival, Ty Majeski, who only took two tires. Heim restarted in 10^th in the first NASCAR Overtime attempt.

“Yeah, I don’t care if I was on hundred-lap tires, nobody was going to beat me tonight,” Heim said. “It wasn’t going to happen. We struggled all weekend in practice a little bit. In qualifying we missed it a little bit. You can always trust Scott (Zipadelli, crew chief) up on the box to do everything he can to put me in position to win the race. That’s what he did.”

When the field took the green flag once again, Heim passed nine trucks, including a seven-wide pass in Turns 1 and 2 to pull into second behind Majeski. Just prior to crossing the start-finish line, another caution came out, and the field doubled up to try again. In double NASCAR Overtime, Heim easily overtook Majeski and went on to win the race and his first series championship.

“Drove it in deep until I couldn’t anymore,” Heim said. “Drove away with it.”

“Just insane. I’m so grateful, so thankful for everyone involved. A laundry list of people that have put me in this spot and allowed me to execute. So grateful to be here.”

Heim won 48% of the 25 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races this season, finished inside the top-five in 76% of the races, led 1,625 laps and had zero DNFs.

“This is a proud night for Corey, his family, TRICON Garage and everyone associated with Toyota GAZOO Racing and TRD, U.S.A,” said Toyota Motor North America General Manager, Motorsports and Sponsorships, Paul Doleshal. “It goes without saying how special of a talent Corey Heim is and to etch his name into NASCAR history with this championship is special and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. We look forward to celebrating more wins and championships with Corey behind the wheel of a Toyota for years to come.” 

Majeski finished an honorable runner-up. The ThorSport Racing driver didn’t win a race in 2025, but he did have 10 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes. On Friday in Phoenix, the driver of the No. 98 Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford just didn’t have the speed to hold Heim at bay.

“Really proud of the whole season this group put together,” Majeski said. “We had a pretty rough stretch in the April, May, June months. We had a pretty strong meeting with ourselves, looked in the mirror and said, Hey, we’re champions, we can turn this thing around. We did. We put on a streak of 12 races in a row in the top 10, nine of them top fives. I thought we were poised to do something very special tonight.

“Honestly just a little bit short. Yeah, very close. Tonight at portions of the run to the 11 I thought at times we were actually better than him. Overall he was just too strong. I couldn’t get a good enough restart to take advantage of where in the run my truck was better.”

Finishing third was Kaden Honeycutt, who was also in the championship hunt. Honeycutt raced a full season starting the year off with Niece Motorsports, but in August, took over the reins of the No. 52 Halmar International Toyota when driver, Stewart Friesen, was injured in a dirt modified race while racing in Canada. Honeycutt finished out the year with four top-five and 14 top-10 finishes.

“In our speed, we were able to get back up there, fight the two in the end,” Honeycutt said. “The last restart the only thing I had a chance at is if him and Corey got together and we could have been three on the bottom into three. Ultimately didn’t happen.

“Didn’t have the balance we needed there to fight for it. Like I said, this run was for Stewart, this whole team. Definitely nothing to hang my head about for sure. My goal when I signed up this year was to at least be here. We did that”

Riggs and Rajah Caruth rounded out the top-five on Friday night. Jake Garcia finished sixth, followed by Corye LaJoie, Chandler Smith, Tyler Reif and Jack Wood.

Tyler Ankrum was the fourth driver of the Championship 4 battling for a championship. He finished a disappointing 14^th in the No. 18 LiUNA! Chevrolet.

“Even tonight we worked really, really hard,” Ankrum said. “We worked really hard on the truck. Finally got it right there in the third stage. We picked up a lot of spots very quickly. I felt like we had a very competitive truck at that point.

“Sucked it took that long to get there. Yeah, no, everybody here’s first time in the Final 4. Win at Rockingham. A bunch of top 5s, top 10s. Not much to complain about overall in the whole year.”

There were nine lead changes among six drivers. Heim led a race high of 100 laps.

The caution flew on seven occasions for 42 laps. The red flag was displayed twice for hard crashes in Turn 3.

The 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season will kickoff at Daytona International Speedway on Friday, Feb. 13.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images