Two weekends ago, Corey Heim proved his mettle for the umpteenth time. The Tricon Garage driver clinched his 10th win of the season in the Craftsman Truck Series. Despite sustaining heavy damage, Heim drove his No. 11 Truck to an overtime victory, beating Brent Crews by 1.338 seconds. Heim even beat Greg Biffle’s 1999 record of 9 Truck trophies. And Kevin Harvick feels there is so much scope for Heim.

Kevin Harvick, who retired back in 2023, also started his NASCAR journey in Trucks. Yet he achieved maximum fame and potential when he scaled up to the Cup Series in February 2001. That is why the 2014 Cup Series champion feels Heim has been in one NASCAR tier for too long.

The sky is the limit for the young phenom

Before Corey Heim entered Trucks, he left a trail of excellence in the ARCA Menards Series. In the 2021 season, he clinched six wins with an average finish of 3.1. His rise through ARCA happened mostly under Venturine Motorsports, an iconic family team that recently announced its closure after finishing 43 stellar seasons of racing. The team was known for being a launchpad for the sport’s brightest stars. Among them are Cup Series high flyers like three-time champion Joey Logano and Toyota legend Christopher Bell. However, Billy Venturini narrowed down on one former ARCA racer: Corey Heim. “He is super special,” Billy said.

And Kevin Harvick heavily agrees with that sentiment. Corey Heim has been competing in the Truck Series since 2023, and Harvick believes he has been there for too long. “There’s guys like Corey Heim that are special,” Harvick said in a “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour’ episode. “I feel like he’s pigeon-holed into the Truck Series right now. He’s just out there destroying them because he’s so much better than them. If you put him in Daytona next year in the Cup car, he’s gonna be competitive and he’s gonna figure it out.”

Corey Heim has made four Cup Series starts so far this year under 23XI Racing. He roped in one top ten, finishing 6th in Bristol. Yet Heim’s 2026 plans remain a mystery, with many floating ideas about a season with starts in all three national series. And Jordan Bianchi speculated that he may scale up to the Cup Series only in 2027. So Billy Venturini agreed with Kevin Harvick’s opinion: “I believe he’d win a Cup race as a rookie. That’s how strong I think he is. He’s unique…He’s ice cold.”

Besides rooting for his swift upgrade, Kevin Harvick also compared Corey Heim with some of the best Cup Series stars.

In a league of their own

In the age of Next-Gen parity, it is difficult to draw lines between drivers’ talents. With the car’s single-spec parts and aerodynamic challenges, drivers cannot pass easily and resort to techniques like fuel mileage. However, some people still manage to stand out with sheer persistence and dedication. For instance, Denny Hamlin clinched his 60th victory at Las Vegas last weekend. Not only was it his 6th trophy of the season, but also an achievement amidst several struggles – like the NASCAR lawsuit and adjustment to a new crew chief. Yet Hamlin excelled wondrously.

According to Billy Venturini, Corey Heim belongs to that unique crop of drivers who excel no matter what. Heim emerged from a humble background, and yet he surpasses his rivals in terms of race preparation. “The amount of research that the drivers do off-track now is insane. I think the very best one for how he preps using sim and everything else is Corey Heim. Corey is the best sim driver I’ve ever seen. I’ll go that far, and it translates, because he is super special,” Billy said.

And Kevin Harvick agreed, drawing a parallel between Heim and the Cup Series stars. “That lines up with everything that I’ve watched, from the outside looking in…You’ve got the Joey Logano and the Denny Hamlin. Now, Ryan Blaney is doing pretty good, William Byron is doing pretty good, but they’ll never catch up to the experience side of things that those two guys have. There are those key guys that can go to a test and turn their season around…be able to dissect the car and put it in a path that’s better than what it was.”

Evidently, Corey Heim is turning heads with his groundbreaking success. Let’s wait and see if sponsors will pave his path to greater heights.