WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — As cautions bred cautions during the closing laps of Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International, Corey Heim motored through late-race chaos to retake the lead and win his series-best sixth race of the 2025 season.
But it didn’t come without a veteran challenge in the closing moments of the 81-lapper, a race extended with three overtimes. McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Daniel Hemric used a little strategy — and some instinct — to wheel his No. 19 Chevrolet to runner-up at the 2.45-mile facility, earning his best finish since Texas Motor Speedway in May.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Watkins Glen
In a race when Hemric thought he didn’t have his best stuff, he described the finish as ‘twofold’, still nearly knocking off the championship favorite in the waning moments at The Glen.
“I don’t think we had the best truck, but also, I think I had enough advantage to be equal with him at the end,” Hemric explained post-race. “Right now, it’s one that got away, but hindsight being 20-20, I mean, we came a long way from where we were sitting about 10 laps into Stage 1. Sometimes you just got to count your blessings.”
Knowing Hemric was struggling in the early moments of Friday’s race, the penultimate event of the regular season, crew chief Kevin Bellicourt made a bold call. Hemric, along with two playoff hopefuls in Ben Rhodes and Gio Ruggiero, stayed out during a Lap 11 caution, a call that helped ultimately put the No. 19 in contention down the stretch. He restarted out front and finished eighth in the opening stage.
Hemric later pitted in Stage 2, and similarly, got track position later in the second segment to bank more points after a Jack Wood caution shaped up a one-lap dash to the stage break. But heading through the esses, Hemric briefly lost fuel pressure — an issue that plagued several trucks through the afternoon — and dropped back to 14th at the green/checkered flag.
Still, the original strategy put the No. 19 team in prime position for the final stage.
“These guys were having fuel issues as we got lower on fuel — not crazy low on fuel — but lower,” Hemric said. “We were having issues before we were getting as low as we thought, and we tried to just buy some insurance. So we were, I think, one of the first ones. Like me and the 17 [of Gio Ruggiero] were the first ones to pit, and ultimately, that was the deciding factor. Gives us a shot at the end.
“Just hats off to Kevin Bellicourt, man. He just made a great call [to head to] pit road right then and there, and that ultimately set us in a position where we had options for the rest of the day.”
The final stage ran caution free until 11 regularly scheduled laps remained. But that’s when chaos reigned in the hazy Central New York air.
Hemric avoided several incidents as the laps ticked down — two of which involved teammate Connor Mosack — and saved enough fuel to pilot ahead to outside front row for the second overtime restart. Hemric missed on his opportunity to pounce, but a second consecutive caution in the bus stop set up a final chance for the veteran.
Heim again fired ahead to the lead, but he didn’t get far. Hemric stayed attached to the bumper of the No. 11 Toyota on the final lap and carried momentum into Turn 6, but diving to the inside, he couldn’t make it stick. The two darted toward Turn 7 nearly even with the checkered flag in sight, but Hemric had to file back in line and settle for second at The Glen.
“I learned something off the first [restart] and tried to apply it for the second one. I felt like it was better and I had a better chance at it,” Hemric explained. “I liked my chances and my leverage that I had into [Turn] 1. The 11 had to make a big block on me down the front straightaway and let me get to where I wanted to be in 1. I thought I had him where I wanted to be, but man, he just had a lot of potential starting in the esses, and it was all I could do not to drive into his door.
“I drove in to get close to him [in Turn 6 on the final lap], and he had a little bit of a wheel hop of brake lock and it let me get to his left side, and I thought we were gonna race it out through [Turn 7], and honestly, I just felt like I undervalued how much potential he still had left in his truck with as old as tires that he had and the amount of speed he carried on entry. He just cleared me and drove off to the checkered flag.”
As Heim tried to manipulate the overtime restarts, Hemric kept it as clean as possible racing for the win. The Tricon Garage driver admitted he found himself in an awkward position on the final re-fire in Turn 1 and respected that Hemric refused to use the bumper in the closing corners.
“I was in a really bad aero spot, and really got a lot of respect for him for not sticking it through there and not wiping me out because he certainly could have,” Heim said after the race. “Daniel’s always been a really clean racer and I enjoy racing around him. So props to him for that.
“To have a guy like that to race around and know that you can race hard with him and he’s not going to put yourself, put himself in a bad spot … I think that’s a really gratifying feeling as a racer and being around a guy that does it the right way, I think that’s really cool.”
Hemric, Heim and company wrap up the 2025 regular season on Friday with a trip to Richmond Raceway (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio),
Read the full article here
