Any list of NASCAR’s top prospects has placed Corey Heim at or near the top for the last two seasons.
Heim remains a top prospect, but he’s now a NASCAR Cup Series winner after conquering the street course at Naval Base Coronado.
Advertisement
The 23-year-old ran down points leader Tyler Reddick and passed him for the lead with two laps to go and earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Anduril 250 on June 21 at the naval base near San Diego.
Reddick sunk to 25th after a tire failure shortly after he relinquished the lead, as Denny Hamlin cut further into the No. 45’s points lead.
Here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR San Diego race:
POINTS AFTER SAN DIEGO: NASCAR points standings: Cup Series points update after San Diego race
NASCAR San Diego winners and losers as pressure is on SVG to make Chase
Winner: Corey Heim and anyone who believed he should be a Cup full-time driver — this season
One of the major question marks about the 2026 season was the status of 2025 Truck Series champion Corey Heim.
Advertisement
He entered the season as a part-time driver for 23XI Racing in a fourth entry for a limited schedule while doing the same thing in the Truck Series with TRICON Garage. Given that Heim dominated the Truck Series season last year in a way few others have, plus a top-10 and two top-15 finishes in four Cup races with 23XI, the 23-year-old deserved a serious look at a full-time Toyota ride in the Cup Series.
Heim is the kind of young and talented driver that teams should plan their futures around instead of the other way.
That had to be on the minds of many inside the Cup Series garage as they watched Heim chase the Cup Series points leader down in the final 10 laps, then pass him in a tight side-by-side battle to earn his first career Cup win.
Heim has won three of his five Truck starts this year, but that stat shocks no one. Neither should Heim’s ability in a Cup Series car.
Advertisement
Heim has led laps in three of six Cup starts this season and has recorded three top-20 finishes so far. He has six more Cup races left on his previously-announced 2026 schedule.
The good news for Heim is that he is already set to fill 23XI Racing’s third full-time driver seat in 2027 next to Reddick and Bubba Wallace. That it comes a year later than it should have is something that cannot be changed, but everyone is well aware that Heim’s time is now.
Winner: Bubba Wallace
Bubba Wallace was fast early and later in the NASCAR San Diego race, but it’s what happened on Lap 18 that made for a long day of work for the driver of the No. 23.
Advertisement
Wallace’s right-front tire was not secure after a pit stop, and the right-front wheel rolled away from the Toyota mid-lap to force a caution.
Wallace was given a two-lap penalty during the stage break, and the team had to repair damage to the splitter after the car rolled on three tires to pit road.
The No. 23 earned a couple free passes after cautions to work back onto the lead lap, and Wallace steadily drove back up into the top 15 before getting some strategy luck from the final caution of the day.
He then drove into second for a time before Corey Heim and Tyler Reddick pulled away, and slotted into the runner-up spot when Reddick had a tire issue on the next-to-last lap.
Advertisement
Wallace gained points on the Chase cutline after a strong result at a road course, but it didn’t have to be such a treacherous path to get there.
Loser: Shane van Gisbergen’s Chase chances
Shane van Gisbergen needed a good two weeks in the final road-course races of the season to create a large enough buffer to make the Chase.
Coming out of San Diego, the question is whether or not SVG will have a buffer at all.
SVG opted to pit late in Stage 1 in lieu of grabbing stage points, asking his team multiple times if they could stay out to grab the guaranteed points.
And this is why: SVG was involved in a crash about 15 laps later on a restart up front. Austin Hill and Connor Zilisch led the field to the green, and SVG teased a three-wide battle into Turn 1 before backing off. But Hill missed the corner, driving himself and Zilisch into the outside wall.
Advertisement
SVG had nowhere to go but through the two crashing cars in front of it, receiving terminal damage to the front end. SVG finished 38th, earning one point for a weekend’s worth of work after claiming the pole a day prior.
Given his high expectations at a road course, the result was a matter of 40-or-more points lost. The pressure is on for him next weekend at Sonoma, the final road course race of the season. SVG is hovering on the Chase bubble, dropping to 17th coming out of San Diego.
Loser: Brad Keselowski’s spring and summer stretch
Brad Keselowski’s Chase chances are slipping further away through the front windshield after a fourth consecutive finish outside of the top 30.
Advertisement
Keselowski battled issues throughout the day, including multiple steering issues. The No. 6 bounced off the wall in the second stage, impacting the toe. Later, Keselowski was walled by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as the two reacted to a Chase Elliott spin. That impact with the wall required a lengthy repair in the garage, and Keselowski lost several laps.
By the end, Keselowski earned a 34th-place finish, 16 laps down.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR San Diego winners, losers after Corey Heim wins first Cup race
Read the full article here
