Solid Debut Season Results in Tenth in Points for Corey Heim

One of the most impressive drivers of the 2019 ARCA Menards Series season is seventeen-year-old Corey Heim.

Coming straight from the short track bullrings to contend for the Sioux Chief Short Track Challenge title, Heim split the controls of Chad Bryant Racing’s No. 22 Ford with Ty Majeski and Connor Hall throughout the season, and powered Bryant to third in the final series owners standings.

While the experienced Majeski was able to rack up three wins on the superspeedways, Heim came into his first ARCA Menards Series start with no previous experience in a full-bodied stock car. Not that anyone would have known, as Heim drove to a fifth-place finish in his debut at Five Flags Speedway in March and then backed that up with another fifth-place run at Salem Speedway in April.

His next three starts, Fairgounds Speedway Nashville, Toledo Speedway, and Madison International Speedway, all resulted in finished in the double digits, but the eleventh-place at Nashville would be the worst result Heim and Bryant would have all season long. The upside of the Nashville race was Heim got out front and led for the first time in his career, leading four laps on the day.

From there, Heim debuted at WWT Raceway at Gateway, the first time he’d been on a track longer than one mile in his career. He powered to an impressive fourth-place finish at the unique egg-shaped oval outside of St. Louis, a career-best. He followed it with his fourth top-five finish of the season, a fifth-place, at Elko Speedway in Minnesota in his seventh start of the year.

Heim finished sixth at Iowa before making another superspeedway appearance at Pocono Raceway, and just like when he debuted at WWT Raceway, he rose to the occasion matching his career-best finish with another fourth-place run. He led laps for the second time in his ARCA Menards Series career, eleven, on his way to a seventh-place finish on the dirt at Springfield, but left disappointed after contending for the victory. Heim was pushed into the outside groove on a restart with two laps to go, dropping from second to seventh and leaving him dejected – but optimistic – heading into the second dirt race of the season at DuQuoin.

A twelfth-place starting position at DuQuoin wasn’t the best situation for Heim but he quickly started to make his way to the front. Despite not having any stock car experience on dirt other than the previous race at Springfield, Heim impressed again, this time able to put together the finish he deserved and he notched another career-best when he crossed the line in third.

Heim closed the season out on a high note, matching his third-place run the next time out at Salem and then closed the year with a fourth-place run at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

In 13 starts, Heim finished among the top ten twelve times, eight of which were among the top five. He completed 99.1% of his possible laps, and averaged a 5.1 start and a 5.9 finish.

ARCA’s 67th season will come to a close when Christian Eckes will officially be crowned the 36th ARCA Menards Series champion on Saturday, December 14 at the Championship Banquet held at the Indiana State Convention Center, held annually in conjunction with the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show. Tickets to the black tie gala, which are also available to the general public, are on sale now.