Corey Heim has put the NASCAR Cup Series on notice. He has won his second race in only 15 starts and captured his first crown jewel.
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The Georgia native delivered on the biggest stage. He made his first Cup Series start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he took the lead from team owner Denny Hamlin on the final restart.
MORE: Corey Heim Wins, Full Results
Heim led the final 35 laps of the race while holding off a hard-charging Christopher Bell and Joey Logano. Chase Briscoe and Hamlin settled for fourth and fifth, respectively.
IT'S HEIM TIME IN INDY!! pic.twitter.com/BDmLyc5EL7
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 26, 2026
A full-time driver for 23XI Racing next season, Heim has only made eight starts this season. The last three starts have featured some big moments.
He broke through for his first career win on Naval Base Coronado on June 21. He then finished ninth at Chicagoland Speedway, another track where he had never competed.
Now, he has won one of NASCAR's four crown jewel races, which he captured after running inside the top five all day. He finished stage 1 in the second position. He then finished stage 2 in the fifth position.
This win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway secured a crown jewel, but it also put the 24-year-old driver on two different elite lists.
He is the youngest driver to win the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since Jeff Gordon in 1994. Gordon won the crown jewel race two days after he turned 23.
Heim is also the first part-time driver to win multiple Cup Series races in a single season since Davey Allison and Tim Richmond in 1987.
"That was a damn handful," Heim said about his ill-handling car and the final run to the checkered flag. "I was hanging on for dear life. Once the shade went down and the pace picked up, my car went loose.
"And I had never really been in a lot of clean air throughout the day, so that was the hardest I've ever fought in my life to make sure I focused on exits and kept them in dirty air. I'm pretty out of breath. That was a workout."
