The NASCAR Truck Series regular season ended the way it had largely been contested over the first 18 races.
Everyone was chasing Corey Heim, Scott Zippadelli and their No. 11 Toyota Tundra, who secured their seventh win of the season on Friday night at Richard Raceway in Virginia.
Heim started from the pole, but was challenged all night by defending series champion Ty Majeski, whom swept both stages and led 143 of 250 laps. Majeski however, was swept up in an incident with teammate Matt Crafton, who drifted up the track on an oily surface and that was before another incident on a restart changed the handling of his truck.
Nevertheless, it all combined to result in another win for Heim, who enters the playoffs with a staggering 64 playoff point lead over the cutline.
“Felt like we were the best truck at [short tracks] Martinsville (Va.) and North Wilkesboro (N.C.) but they got away from us and we kind of got this one back,” Heim said of his short track struggles this season. “I didn’t feel like we were the best truck tonight. I feel like the 98 was really stout, but obviously had a run-in and got some damage.
“Being there when it counted was the first goal and we were and just able to execute from there.”
This race also finalized the 10-driver playoff roster.
Heim, Layne Riggs, Chandler Smith, Daniel Hemric, Tyler Ankrum and Rajah Caruth advanced to the six-race playoffs via race wins. Majeski, Grant Enfinger, Kaden Honeycutt and Jake Garcia advanced via their championship points.
Stewart Friesen had advanced via his victory at Michigan earlier in the summer but withdrew from consideration due to a violent crash suffered this month driving his Big Block Modified in Quebec, Canada.
Garcia was the last to advance on points ahead of two-time champion Ben Rhodes and rookie Gio Ruggiero on Friday night.
“Just did my best to run a smart race the second half,” said Garcia, driver of the No. 13 ThorSport Racing Ford. “Even in the first half there were moments we were four wide and that’s not gonna work out at Richmond. There were some points I had to bail out and lost a lot of spots on the restarts just being really conservative.
“But our truck was really fast and I think we could have finished top-five. I want to thank all my guys. They worked really, really hard on this truck like they do all the trucks and gave me a really fast piece today.”
Jake Garcia on making it into the Truck Series playoffs at Richmond and how his race tonight is reflective of their strategy the rest of the way pic.twitter.com/N9usfD7LOP
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 16, 2025
Gio Ruggiero on his last chance effort to make the Truck Series playoffs at Richmond and what he’s learned this year so far pic.twitter.com/1tzVtr6Ghi
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 16, 2025
Regular season post-mortem from Ben Rhodes and what comes next this year for his team pic.twitter.com/XWPdAZ6kyi
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 16, 2025
The Truck Series Playoffs begin Saturday August 30 with the Sober or Slammer 200 at Darlington Raceway. There are three rounds, the first two containing three races and two eliminations, and then a final four at Phoenix.
This is the first year the historic track has hosted the series in a Playoff contest.
Results
|
Fin |
Truck |
Driver |
Laps |
Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
11 |
Corey Heim |
250 |
— |
|
2 |
98 |
Ty Majeski (S1) (S2) |
250 |
0.923 |
|
3 |
34 |
Layne Riggs |
250 |
1.556 |
|
4 |
7 |
Sammy Smith (i) |
250 |
6.460 |
|
5 |
77 |
Corey LaJoie |
250 |
6.896 |
|
6 |
17 |
Gio Ruggiero # |
250 |
9.638 |
|
7 |
13 |
Jake Garcia |
250 |
13.527 |
|
8 |
99 |
Ben Rhodes |
250 |
14.287 |
|
9 |
38 |
Chandler Smith |
250 |
14.960 |
|
10 |
52 |
Kaden Honeycutt |
250 |
15.861 |
|
11 |
18 |
Tyler Ankrum |
250 |
17.090 |
|
12 |
16 |
Christian Eckes (i) |
250 |
17.901 |
|
13 |
9 |
Grant Enfinger |
250 |
24.005 |
|
14 |
15 |
Tanner Gray |
249 |
1 lap |
|
15 |
97 |
Carson Kvapil (i) |
249 |
1 lap |
|
16 |
1 |
Brent Crews |
249 |
1 lap |
|
17 |
42 |
Matt Mills |
249 |
1 lap |
|
18 |
81 |
Connor Mosack # |
249 |
1 lap |
|
19 |
71 |
Rajah Caruth |
249 |
1 lap |
|
20 |
45 |
Bayley Currey |
248 |
2 laps |
|
21 |
44 |
Andres Perez de Lara # |
248 |
2 laps |
|
22 |
66 |
Luke Fenhaus |
248 |
2 laps |
|
23 |
84 |
Patrick Staropoli (i) |
247 |
3 laps |
|
24 |
5 |
Toni Breidinger # |
247 |
3 laps |
|
25 |
41 |
Matthew Gould |
247 |
3 laps |
|
26 |
88 |
Matt Crafton |
247 |
3 laps |
|
27 |
02 |
Nick Leitz (i) |
246 |
4 laps |
|
28 |
76 |
Spencer Boyd |
245 |
5 laps |
|
29 |
67 |
Ryan Roulette |
240 |
10 laps |
|
30 |
74 |
Caleb Costner |
239 |
11 laps |
|
31 |
26 |
Dawson Sutton # |
223 |
27 laps |
|
32 |
33 |
Frankie Muniz # |
208 |
Out |
|
33 |
19 |
Daniel Hemric |
186 |
64 laps |
|
34 |
22 |
Stephen Mallozzi |
5 |
Out |
|
35 |
2 |
Clayton Green |
2 |
Out |
Driver Playoffs
Corey Heim +62
Layne Riggs +23
Chandler Smith +16
Daniel Hemric +8
Tyler Ankrum +7
Ty Majeski +7
Grant Enfinger +4
Rajah Caruth +2
—
Kaden Honeycutt -2
Jake Garcia -3
Owner Playoffs
Tricon Garage No. 11 +60
Front Row No. 34 +22
Front Row No. 38 +14
McAnally Racing No. 19 +5
Thorsport Racing No. 98 +4
McAnally Racing No. 18 +3
Spire No. 7 +2
CR7 No. 9 +1
—
Halmar Friesen No. 52 -1
Spire No. 71 -1
Daniel Hemric on what happened on Lap 1 and how much a previous championship run matters in advance of this final stretch pic.twitter.com/2dLdeZJjmI
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 16, 2025
How was Kaden Honeycutt’s debut with Halmar Friesen? pic.twitter.com/DPNzyS9rE0
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 16, 2025
Rajah Caruth says the Truck Series playoffs for him is just about him executing better pic.twitter.com/WK7pFzrkQJ
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 16, 2025
How does Tyler Ankrum plan to take on that 11 group in the Truck Series playoffs? pic.twitter.com/6rGI5a3RXu
— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) August 16, 2025
