Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: TRICON Garage

  • Corey Heim claims 2023 Truck Series Regular Season Championship

    Corey Heim claims 2023 Truck Series Regular Season Championship

    With a sixth-place finish in the Worldwide Express 250 at Richmond Raceway, Corey Heim was named the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Regular Season Championship recipient on Saturday, July 29.

    The 21-year-old Heim from Marietta, Georgia, entered Saturday’s event at Richmond, the final regular-season event on the schedule, with a 42-point advantage over reigning series champion Zane Smith. Needing 19 points to clinch the regular-season title, he accomplished the feat early in a night where he rolled off the grid starting alongside pole-sitter Ty Majeski on the front row. Despite being overtaken by Ben Rhodes during the opening lap, Heim would retain third place throughout the first stage period spanning 70 laps and clinch the title with his top-three result.

    After clinching the regular-season title, Heim proceeded to lead nine laps in the second stage amid more battles involving ThorSport Racing’s Majeski and Rhodes before he recorded another top-three result and additional stage points at the second stage’s conclusion. At the start of the final stage period, Heim fell back to fourth as Carson Hocevar, the eventual winner of the event, joined the battle at the front. By then, Majeski was sent to the rear of the field for speeding on pit road. After pitting under green with select others with less than 40 laps remaining, Heim found himself mired outside of the top 10, but he was able to methodically cycle his way back into the top 10 before finishing the event in sixth place, which marked his 13th top-10 result in 15 regular-season starts. The result was enough for him to remain in first place in the regular-season standings by 51 points over Ty Majeski and 55 over Zane Smith, both of whom finished second and third, respectively.

    With his accomplishment, Heim became the seventh different competitor to win a Craftsman Truck Series Regular Season Championship title, joining a list that includes Christopher Bell, Johnny Sauter, Grant Enfinger, Austin Hill, John Hunter Nemechek and Zane Smith. By capturing this year’s regular-season title, Heim was awarded the top seed to start the 2023 Truck Series Playoffs with 2,030 points and 30 Playoff points and enters as one of 10 competitors who will embark on a seven-race stretch to battle for the 2023 Truck Series title, beginning at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Indiana, on August 11.

    “Yeah, tough night tonight, for sure,” Heim said on FS1. “Definitely not letting [the finish] overshadow the phenomenal regular season we had as a team. We came from a long way to start the year. I feel like we needed a lot the first couple of weeks, but made so much progress within our TRICON Garage team with Toyota Racing. Our Safelite Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, throughout the year, was really good. [Tonight’s] JBL Tundra TRD Pro needed some work tonight, but definitely, just a lot of progress made. Just super proud of everyone that’s involved.”

    Heim is campaigning in his first full-time season in the Truck Series a year after competing in 16 of 23 events in 2022 for Kyle Busch Motorsports, where he notched his first two career victories in the series and claimed the Rookie-of-the-Year title. Piloting the No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage, a team that was rebranded from David Gilliland Racing prior to this season, and led by former championship-winning crew chief Scott Zipadelli, Heim commenced this season with an eighth-place result in the series’ rain-shortened opener at Daytona International Speedway in February. Six races and three additional top-10 results later, the Georgian notched his first victory of the season and the first for TRICON at Martinsville Speedway in April after sweeping both stages and fending off former owner Kyle Busch to retain the lead when the event was shortened 76 laps of its scheduled distance due to precipitation.

    After finishing in the runner-up spot at Kansas Speedway before finishing eighth at Darlington Raceway in eighth, both occurring after the Martinsville victory, Heim assumed the lead in the series standings for the first time in his career. Despite being absent for the series’ event at World Wide Technology Raceway in June due to an illness, where he was granted a waiver to still make this year’s Playoffs, he managed to remain in the points lead and he responded back with vengeance in early July by notching his second victory of the season at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where he led a race-high 30 of 67-scheduled laps. Prior to Richmond, Heim was coming off a runner-up result at Pocono Raceway after being overtaken by Kyle Busch on the final lap.

    Through 34 career starts in the Truck Series, Heim has achieved four victories, five poles, 13 top-five results, 23 top-10 results, 479 laps led and an average-finishing result of 11.3. His current average-finishing result of this season is 7.1 on the strength of his two race victories, five stage victories, three poles, seven top-five results and 13 top-10 results.

    In addition to his full-time Truck campaign, Heim has made his first three career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Sam Hunt Racing, where his best on-track result is a 10th-place finish at Darlington in May. He is also a nine-time race winner in the ARCA Menards Series, with two of his victories occurring in back-to-back series season openers at Daytona in 2021 and 2022.

    Corey Heim’s pursuit for his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship commences at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on August 11. The event’s coverage is scheduled to commence at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • TRICON Garage unveils 2023 crew chief & personnel lineup

    TRICON Garage unveils 2023 crew chief & personnel lineup

    With the 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season nine days away from commencing, TRICON Garage put the final pieces of its rebranded puzzle together by revealing its crew chief and personnel lineup for its fleet of Toyota Tundra TRD Pros and drivers.

    For starters, Seth Smith will remain at TRICON to serve as a crew chief for the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro that will compete in select events and be piloted by multiple competitors that include Jason White for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway next Friday and newcomer William Sawalich, who will make his debut at Martinsville Speedway in April. The 34-year-old Smith from Troutman, North Carolina, has achieved two Truck career victories to his resume, both of which occurred during the previous season with Todd Gilliland at Knoxville Raceway and with Ryan Preece at Nashville Superspeedway.

    Next, Derek Smith, brother to Seth Smith, will be graduating to the Truck Series to assume the pit box of the No. 5 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro team that will be driven by Dean Thompson, who joins the organization as a full-time competitor after spending the previous season at Niece Motorsports. Smith makes his move to the Truck circuit with 31 ARCA Menards Series events as a crew chief to his resume. As a former crew chief for TRICON in the ARCA regions, he led veteran and TRICON’s owner David Gilliland to his first ARCA West career victory at Phoenix Raceway in 2020.

    New to the organization for this season is Scott Zipadelli, the 2018 Truck Series championship-winning crew chief from Newington, Connecticut. Zipadelli will lead the No. 11 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro that will be piloted by Corey Heim, the reigning Truck Series Rookie-of-the-Year recipient who notched his first two career victories during the previous season and is set to run his first full-time Truck season. Prior to TRICON, Zipadelli spent the previous six seasons at Hattori Racing Enterprises, where he notched 14 of his 15 career victories along with the 2018 title with Brett Moffitt. His other victory occurred at Michigan International Speedway in 2016 with Red Horse Racing and Moffitt. To go along with his success in the Truck circuit, Zipadelli has notched three Xfinity Series victories as a crew chief.

    Coming off his first campaign as a crew chief in the NASCAR Cup Series, Jerame Donley will embark on another new beginning for this season by becoming a full-time Truck Series crew chief for TRICON’s No. 15 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro that will be driven by Tanner Gray, who returns for a fourth full-time campaign at TRICON. Donley, a graduate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, spent the majority of this past season as a crew chief for Ty Dillon and Petty GMS Motorsports. Previously, he was a nine-year engineer veteran for Chip Ganassi Racing and a former mechanic for Hendrick Motorsports.

    Lastly, Billy Wilburn will be returning to the Truck Series to serve as a crew chief for TRICON’s No. 17 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro team that will be piloted by rookie Taylor Gray in all but the first three scheduled events. The 56-year-old Wilburn from Tempe, Arizona, has called 196 NASCAR national touring series events as a crew chief. His lone victory occurred at Kentucky Speedway in June 2006 with David Gilliland, who notched his first Xfinity career win. With Gray missing the first three events due to age restrictions, Sammy Smith will be making his Truck debut at Daytona. It remains undetermined who will be driving the No. 17 entry for the following two events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.

    In addition, veteran Matt Puccia will be joining TRICON Garage to assume the role of Competition Director. The 69-year-old Puccia from Watertown, New York, previously worked as a Director of Operations for Roush Fenway Racing and has called 269 Cup Series events as a crew chief for Roush from 2011 to 2018. During the span, he notched three career victories and three Playoff appearances, all with former veteran Greg Biffle, from 2012 to 2014.

    The 2023 season is set to mark a new beginning for TRICON Garage, which was rebranded from David Gilliland Racing and reunited with Toyota following a three-year partnership with Ford.

    With their lineup set, TRICON Garage is set to make its debut at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, which will commence a new season of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competition. The event’s air time is set to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

  • TRICON Garage adds Sammy Smith for Truck Series opener at Daytona

    TRICON Garage adds Sammy Smith for Truck Series opener at Daytona

    A new season with a new opportunity will produce another first-time opportunity for Sammy Smith as he will be joining TRICON Garage in a one-race deal for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck season-opening event at Daytona International Speedway in mid-February.

    The 18-year-old Smith from Johnston, Iowa, will be piloting TRICON’s No. 17 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro sponsored by Mobil 1 in place of Taylor Gray, who will not compete in the first three Truck events on this year’s schedule due to NASCAR’s age restriction policy. Gray, who is set to join TRICON and contend for the rookie title, will make his first start of this season at Circuit of the Americas in late March once he turns 18.

    For Smith, the Daytona event will mark his first career start in the NASCAR Truck circuit. He is set to pilot Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 Toyota Supra on a full-time basis for this upcoming NASCAR Xfinity Series season, beginning at Daytona in February, as he will contend for both the rookie and championship titles. During the previous season, Smith made his first nine career starts in the Xfinity circuit with JGR, where he notched three top-10 results and a career-best third-place run at Watkins Glen International in August. He is also a two-time ARCA Menards Series East champion, having won both titles in the last two consecutive seasons, and a six-time ARCA Menards Series winner.

    The 2023 season is set to mark a new beginning for TRICON Garage, which was rebranded from David Gilliland Racing and changed manufacturers with Toyota following a three-year partnership with Ford. In addition to the No. 17 entry, the team will be fielding the Nos. 5, 11 and 15 entries on a full-time basis. Corey Heim, the reigning Truck Series Rookie-of-the-Year recipient, will be piloting the No. 11 entry for his first full-time Truck campaign while Dean Thompson and Tanner Gray will be driving the Nos. 5 and 15 entries, respectively. TRICON will also be fielding the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro on a part-time basis for newcomer William Sawalich, who is scheduled to make his Truck debut at Martinsville Speedway in April.

    Additional details regarding TRICON Garage’s driver plans for the No. 17 entry for the following two Truck events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March have yet to be announced.

    Smith’s debut in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is set to occur at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, which will commence a new season of Truck competition. The event is scheduled to occur at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.