Summer Heim: Brickyard winner establishes himself with crown-jewel Indy triumph
PEEDWAY, Ind. — When it’s time to shine, look no further than Corey Heim.
23XI Racing’s part-time phenom has stolen the show this summer, erupting onto the scene to win two of the summer’s biggest NASCAR Cup Series races, first in the inaugural race at Naval Base Coronado and again in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“For a part-time driver, it looks like they are doing a pretty great job,” said Denny Hamlin, co-owner of 23XI, ninth on NASCAR’s all-time Cup Series wins list.
Heim has firmly established himself as NASCAR’s ‘Next One’ — a can’t-miss prospect who Hamlin bet on in 2024 by signing him to a driver-development contract. It’s taken time for Heim’s opportunities at the sport’s top level to materialize. But after 15 starts, he’s proven that patience is indeed a virtue.
“On Corey specifically, we’ve really got to tip our hat to his maturity and his discipline,” Dave Rogers, competition director of 23XI Racing, told NASCAR.com in Victory Lane. “You know, turning down full-time rides — he could have been in cars full time this year. He chose to be patient, do it right, come through our development program and prepare for each of these events very thoroughly. And I think we’re showing that it’s paying off, so he deserves a lot of credit for that discipline.”
With a full season of Cup Series competition awaiting him in 2027, when he’ll slot into the No. 35 car full time for 23XI, Heim has already won more this season than many of the Cup Series’ best, including second-place finisher Christopher Bell and third-place driver Joey Logano, a three-time Cup champion. To do so on the sport’s biggest stages of 2026 — including laps led in his Daytona 500 debut in February — signifies a mental prowess that allows Heim to perhaps be the Cup Series’ first turnkey prospect in the Next Gen era.
“Just a lot of prep, man. A lot of mental prep, a lot of physical prep,” Heim said. “Just really happy to be a part of this organization of 23XI and Toyota. They’re at the top of their game right now, and once again, talking about what I said earlier, if I can just execute and do what I need to do, the cars have so much speed right now that it just speaks for themselves. And I’ve done a not-so-great job at some of the races. Like Nashville is one that sticks out to me. I was probably destined to finish anywhere between second and fifth that race, if not maybe getting lucky on that last restart and winning the race, so that was a tough one. That was like our best shot at having a good run, and ever since then, I’ve just kind of elevated my prep and game to make sure I don’t make these like vital mistakes throughout the race anymore. It just takes 100% out of me, and I’m trying to get it.”
MORE: Full Brickyard 400 recap
The stats in his three starts since Nashville Superspeedway support his theory, with two wins and a ninth-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway as evidence. Across those eight starts, Heim is averaging 28.5 points per race — a clip that outpaces Chase Briscoe (28.3), who sits seventh in the series points standings.
What’s more notable about Heim’s development is his obvious versatility. His victories have come at two vastly different styles of tracks — one a street course in its inaugural year with myriad unknowns, another at a tried-and-true oval that teams have decades of experience at.
“It’s two totally different race tracks that we’ve been able to execute on,” Heim said. “Just being here at the Brickyard just means so much. Even just being able to start the race, I remember getting goosebumps on the grid with the flyover — not even thinking about the result of the race and whatever it would be in a couple hours from then. But yeah, to come here and win, it’s absolutely surreal. I mean, I just couldn’t fathom telling myself as a little kid that I was going to be a crown-jewel winner one day. So to sit here and be able to soak that all in, it’s a really special feeling for sure.”
