The oldest and winningest active driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, as well as a shrewd team owner, Denny Hamlin has become a sounding board for his sage counsel.
So he was a little surprised when protege Corey Heim went radio silent ahead of the inaugural race at Naval Base Coronado.
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“I asked Corey before the race, ‘This is the first week you haven’t called me for advice, you didn’t think I’d bring anything to the table?’” Hamlin said with a smile. “Apparently, he was good.”
Indeed, Heim proved he had it handled with his upset win Sunday. By winning in only his 13th career start, the rising star reaffirmed that Hamlin has a keen eye for spotting talent while taking risks in building 23XI Racing with NBA legend Michael Jordan, his co-owner.
Four years ago, Hamlin and Jordan showed faith in Tyler Reddick by signing him more than 18 months before his Richard Childress Racing contract expired. Reddick escaped the deal’s final year and validated Hamlin’s faith with a championship round appearance.
Reddick opened this season by winning five of the first nine races (including the Daytona 500). The Cup Series points leader was on his way to a sixth win Sunday on the street course south of downtown San Diego before he got outdueled by Heim, who will move into Cup full time in 2027 as a teammate of Reddick and Bubba Wallace.
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“Really surprised,” Hamlin said about Heim’s breakout performance. “Now if you would have asked me in the middle of the race, I wouldn’t have been that surprised. I got to race around him enough to know he had plenty of speed.”
As a top-level driver with 64 victories ( four this season ), the 45-year-old Hamlin has an edge over other team owners because he can scout prospects with a firsthand perspective while also speaking their language behind the wheel.
After winning the truck series championship last year, Heim passed on full time with other Cup teams and chose to race a partial schedule while waiting for the 2027 ride to open at 23XI Racing.
“I always just had a gut feeling that 23XI was where I wanted to be,” Heim said. “Just so much support from Denny and MJ. I talk to them on a very regular basis, and I’ve always felt like family. Their preparation is the best in the industry. It probably would have been advantageous to be full time as soon as possible, but my gut just told me to stay with it.”
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Street race successes
A sellout crowd of 50,000 fans gathered on the active military base to witness the third first-time Cup winner this season.
NASCAR chief operating officer Ben Kennedy, who previously took the Cup Series to inaugural events in downtown Chicago and Los Angeles, said 67% of the attendees were NASCAR first-timers.
Though it’s unclear if Naval Base Coronado will be on the 2027 schedule, Kennedy vowed to stay aggressive in the future by scheduling at least one annual street race with an eye toward new metropolitan areas and military bases.
“There are a lot of strategic markets across the country that we would love to be in that have large military bases as well,” Kennedy said. “So we’ve talked about the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, the Northeast.”
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San Diego drawbacks
There were some first-year hiccups for the Coronado track. Because of crashes in the truck, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Cup series races, the red flag was displayed on three consecutive days for repairs to the temporary walls.
The San Diego event weekend drew 125,000 over three days, but NASCAR limited capacity because of concerns about traffic on Coronado Island. After fan complaints Friday and Saturday, NASCAR summoned extra food trucks and staff on Sunday to help with concession stands and bathroom access.
“One of the things we’re most mindful of is the amount of people that you can frankly get on and off the base and still have a good fan experience,” Kennedy said. “We want to make sure that ingress and egress was palpable.”
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Contentious debut
Front Row Motorsports driver Noah Gragson confronted Kevin Magnussen after being spun by the Formula One veteran who made his NASCAR debut. A heated discussion ended without resolution for Gragson and Magnussen, who collided multiple times.
“He was playing it a bit stupid out there,” said Magnussen, who joined his father, Jan, as the second Danish driver to make a Cup start. “He could have had a good race. He chose not to. I felt like I was in a fistfight the whole race through. Everyone was driving so well. It’s tough racing, but people have respect. You can’t mess around. I like that kind of racing. Big respect to everyone except that one guy, but I’ll deal with that.”
Magnussen, who races for BMW’s top sports car team, turned the fastest lap of the race in a 27th-place finish.
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“I learned so much about the car,” he said. “I felt so much more confident toward the end of the race. The pace was there, the car was really good. Just super happy to get the opportunity to race in NASCAR. If I get a chance, I’ll be here. I loved every second of it.”
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