Corey Heim won at San Diego and at Indianapolis. Technically, he should’ve been leading the Rookie of the Year standings. In the coming season, he’ll get his full-time Cup ride with 23XI Racing. The one thing he will never get is a shot at Rookie of the Year, and the reason comes down to a rule NASCAR apparently forgot to tell anyone about. Insider Andrew Kurland broke it down.
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“Corey Heim will not be eligible for Rookie of the Year next season. The limit is 12 starts. Heim is at 15 and he’s not eligible for this season because he didn’t sign up for Cup Series Rookie of the Year this season, which is ironic because Zilisch just passed him in the points in the owner points, so Corey Heim actually was leading what would have been the Rookie of the Year standings had he declared for this year.” he said on Hauler Talk.
Here is some important context. Heim’s 15 starts are split across 2025 and 2026 combined, not one single season. He races part-time in Cup while running a similar schedule in the Truck Series. Come 2027, he takes over the No. 35 Toyota full-time.
NASCAR Vice President of Racing Communications Mike Forde confirmed the rule is simple: more than 12 Cup starts before your declaration year and you are done. 23XI Racing also missed the 2026 application window entirely. Co-owner Denny Hamlin said the team had no clue this limit existed when they were building Heim’s schedule. When Kurland deliberated on this problem, he came with a precedent, somewhere it has already happened.
“Ryan Blaney ran 18 Cup races before his rookie year in 2016. Ty Gibbs ran 15 in 2022, was eligible for the 2023 rookie year. I want to know when did this change, and why can’t we just keep consistent on this rule? That’s my biggest gripe with it.”
Both drivers cleared the current 12-start limit and still got their rookie seasons. NASCAR handled cases like these through committee discretion, driver by driver for a long time. Understandably, the teams’ development programs were around the old way things worked, and then found out the rules had shifted after the fact. Kurland’s frustration was pretty direct.
“To me I don’t like this whatsoever. I mean, what are we doing here? Why can’t Corey Heim be our Rookie of the Year candidate for next year?”
Connor Zilisch is now the only eligible candidate for the 2026 award. Heim has said it himself: when you cut out the most competitive first-year driver in the field, the award stops meaning what it is supposed to mean.
NASCAR has not signaled any plans to revisit the decision. Heim goes into 2027 with two wins and no rookie title. The award goes to whoever is left standing. Neither outcome reflects particularly well on the people who made the call.