With Cup Series debut looming, Corey Heim looking to 'do the best I can' as No. 43 substitute driver
DOVER, Del. — While Corey Heim’s full-time focus may rest with his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the 21-year-old Georgia native enters the race weekend at Dover Motor Speedway with double duty on his mind — including some nerves, he admits, for his first big-league start.
In addition to starting 22nd in the BetRivers 200 in the Xfinity Series, Heim will also make his Cup Series debut in the No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota as a substitute for Erik Jones, who suffered a compression fracture in a lower vertebra after a nose-first wreck at Talladega Superspeedway on April 21.
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“Trying to do the best I can for this group,” Heim said. “They’ve consistently been getting better throughout the year, and I’m super grateful for everyone at Legacy Motor Club and the people there for doing everything they possibly can to get me ready, including Erik. He’s sat in all of our meetings, so huge props to him for doing that. And Jimmie (Johnson) as well, just a guy that’s there. But there is really just a long list of men and women at Legacy Motor Club that have helped me get prepared for this race, and I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about it just because I’ve never sat in one of these cars before, but my job is to do the best I can for this group until Erik comes back.”
Although the experience will be a new one for Heim, Jones has acted as an insightful channel when it comes to advice on operating the Next Gen car and navigating the looming Würth 400 at the Monster Mile (Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
From his experience, Jones can provide Heim with a personal perspective on how to handle the circumstances.
“A lot of it has been the differences in the car. I’d say making your Cup debut now is more challenging than what it was when I did it,” Jones said. “Less practice, completely different car, so there’s a lot of things that are tougher, I feel like when I was making my first Cup Start. … I think the biggest thing is setting expectations. For me and my first Cup start, my mind and my plan was to win the race, and that was probably the wrong plan and I ended up wrecking myself toward the end of the day. I think getting expectations and running all the laps and not crashing is a great debut for most. Talked to him a little about that and the rest has been just about the car and what the differences are there and trying to going from Truck and Xfinity to this car and what it’s going to be like.”
Team co-owner Jimmie Johnson said the status of the No. 43 Toyota will be taken on “a week-by-week basis” as the organization consults with physicians and NASCAR while Jones works toward medical clearance. Johnson confirmed Heim would be in the No. 43 next weekend at Kansas Speedway if Jones is unable to return.
For Heim, the goal this weekend will be to keep it simple. And while he understands there will be a learning curve, Heim is prepared to collect as much insight as he can to best put himself and the No. 43 team in a solid position.
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“I think, for us, we’re just trying to take one step at a time. We’ve got practice and qualifying, and then we’ll take it stage by stage from there,” Heim said. “So, it’s not going to be easy, but it’s a longer race than I’ve been accustomed to than the Trucks and Xfinity stuff, and I’ve also got the Xfinity race as well to kind of lean off of as well, so I’ve got the time this weekend to sort of figure it out. I don’t know if I’ll feel like I’ve figured it out by the end of the weekend. I’m sure it’s gonna take me a lot longer than this weekend, but any advice has been super important.
“I’ve been reaching out to as many people as I possibly can just to try and gather all the information and just have a decent idea … my job once again is to just do the best I can for this 43 group and move forward from there.”
