At Kansas last year, Corey Heim showed exactly why 23XI Racing recruited him as a part-time driver. His results were surprising to the point that yesterday, the team announced a new contract that will allow him to run full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series next year in the No. 35 Toyota Camry XSE, replacing Riley Herbst. And the move is so impactful that even Tyler Reddick acknowledged that he might face tough competition from the rookie, but he might also get to expand his own horizons.

“I feel like that’s shown up at a couple of races he’s run,” Reddick said, speaking to the media post the announcement. “He was able to get speed out of the car that sometimes even I can’t.

“Kansas last year comes to mind. We were all out in that field pretty bad and he was making it work so, yeah it will good to have someone like that on the team full-time that can look at things a different way. I am hoping that I can learn from him, and yeah, if he needs anything, I can learn from him, too.

“I feel like he goes about it in a different way than I do or Bubba does. I mean to make it as simple as possible. I think that I am terrible at running the bottom and he’s really good at it. There’s so much more to it than that, but even I don’t understand it fully. So, I don’t know how to tell you. Let me figure that out.”

Kansas in 2025 gave Reddick enough evidence. It was Heim’s first Cup start of the year and only his second ever in 23XI machinery. And the car was “really, really, really tight” from the opening laps. By lap 6, which was the first caution of the race, Heim was already sitting at 34th. He overshot his pit stall on the green-flag stop at lap 43, which cost him enough time to fall a lap behind leader Kyle Larson when the sequence cycled out.

But working with his crew chief lap by lap, he clawed his way back into the top 25 as the race entered its final stretch.

He stayed out under a late caution to return to the lead lap. He was also involved in a five-wide battle at lap 147 that brought out a caution, and he was able to capitalise on that as he pitted for fresher tyres that the frontrunners did not have over the final 50 laps. With 10 laps to go, he passed Reddick on track for 14th. Two laps later, he was 13th at the flag while Reddick finished P17.

“I feel like if I had more experience, I could actually race inside the top 10 at some point,” Heim said after the race.

It is this dissatisfaction with a P13 run from 34th that defines what 23XI Racing is betting on – a smart bet, one could say. Because Heim does not distinguish between a good race and a winning race. All he knows is the difference between winning and the reasons he did not.

Whether it was a seven-wide pass on the apron at Phoenix to clinch the 2025 Truck Series championship, or a last-lap dive-bomb around Ross Chastain at Darlington, he goes forward with one thought in mind:

“Drove it in deep until I couldn’t anymore. Drove away with it.”

And now that Reddick says it, Heim’s approach might shine brightly full-time now while running the bottom. Reddick could use some of those lessons, too, as he admitted struggling to find pace on that specific racing line.

Running the bottom means taking the lowest lane on the oval tracks. It is the shortest path on the track, usually allowing a NASCAR driver to gain an advantage over the others, conserving fuel. On some tracks, the bottom lane also develops extra grip as rubber builds up over a run. However, its effectiveness depends heavily on track conditions, tire wear, and setup, and drivers often need to be extremely precise because there is less room for error.

That, perhaps, is something Reddick hasn’t mastered yet, and if we are to go by what Freddie Kraft said, then Reddick isn’t a great fan of it either. Last year, Bubba Wallace’s spotter had joked about how Tyler Reddick tries to trick his fellow drivers into running the bottom lane during the Clash at the Bowman Gray Stadium.

That said, while the confidence that both Denny Hamlin and 23XI drivers are displaying in Heim seems unbreakable, is Heim really ready for the Cup Series game next year?

Is Heim ready for a full-time Cup ride?

Sure, Corey Heim is running 12 races this year with 23XI Racing, but is that going to be enough for him to make his full-time debut? Maybe the fact that he has yet to run more than 20 races in NOAPS should also be taken into account.

Everyone saw the result of rushing a driver to use their star power and considering their early dominance as the marker for their immediate promotion. Connor Zilisch, who had dominated the NOAPS at this point in 2025, has yet to display the same essence in the Cup Series. Although it goes without saying that his car is equally to blame for his plight.

Corey Heim is entering 23XI Racing with a similar reputation. In his case, however, Heim is pretty confident that he can compete on an equal level compared to his teammates next year. The reason behind that is his experience with testing and Truck/late-model racing on the weekends when he is not involved in Cup Series races.

“I think I am in the seat more than people realize… It may not be as valuable as straight-up Cup starts by any means, but it just keeps me in the seat and keeps me prepared. So, I have got a really solid schedule regardless of only my 12 Cup starts this year.”

Heim has proven time and again that he does not care about any situation as long as he is there to race. Getting behind the wheel is all that matters to him. Even Denny Hamlin couldn’t deny the fact that the cards that Heim is dealt every time he enters the Cup car relegate him to the back of the pack. Despite all that, Heim has produced one P15 and one P19 finish this year in four starts. He also has a best finish of P6 in Bristol last year. That was only his seventh start in the series.

All in all, it seems like 23XI Racing is going to treat Corey Heim as their biggest weapon. Who knows, after one season, this Truck prodigy might end up battling Tyler Reddick for the No. 1 driver spot in the team and for a championship.