Corey Heim is the first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Pole Award winner in Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval history. Being that it’s the first time Trucks have competed on the 2.28-mile and 17-turn road course made it a little easier to earn the historical accolade.
After posting the fastest speed in practice of 95.056 mph, the No. 11 Toyota Tricon Garage team of Heim backed that up with a 96.492 mph lap to gain the top spot. This was his seventh pole award this season.
Starting outside of Heim will be Layne Riggs who went 96.281 mph in his No. 34 Ford. Rounding out the top five starters are Brent Crews, Grant Enfinger and Playoff contender Kaden Honeycutt in the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota.
Learning by Watching
While Heim is ruling the roost right now with a record-tying nine NCTS race wins in one season, he knew who to watch and emulate in preparation for the Roval race. Once such driver is Shane Van Gisbergen, who has four road course NASCAR Cup Series wins this year. The other is Connor Zilisch, who leads the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff, and will be part of the Roval action.
Zilisch qualified sixth in the 36-truck field.
“I never really came from a road-course background,” Heim told NASCAR.com. “You see a lot of guys that are kind of dominating today in the Xfinity Series with (Connor) Zilisch and Cup with SVG (Shane van Gisbergen).
“Of course, those guys come from the road-course racing backgrounds, and I think just studying them and understanding what makes them so good on these is kind of a big deal of where I sort of progressed a lot.
“I really started working hard on it when I first raced in ARCA, because of the few road-course races that we did within that full-time ARCA year for me. But prior to that, I think I had a couple Legends car races growing up on the road courses, and maybe a couple TA2 (Muscle Car) races to just kind of get my feet in the water.”
Heim Says Zilisch is a Challenge
During his discussion with NASCAR.com, Heim said he looks at Zilisch joining the Roval Truck race in two ways. In the NXS standing, the JR Motorsports Chevrolet driver also has nine victories.
“I’ve always been a believer in ‘if you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best,’ right?” Heim said. “So, Connor coming down is definitely a challenge. He ran well at Watkins Glen, especially for coming in last-second for Kaden (Honeycutt).
“So, definitely going to probably have my hands full with him this weekend.”
Teams Learning Roval with In-Race Strategy
The tough task when taking on a new track for the first time is the lack of prior notes. Unlike other tracks where teams have competed several times in the past, there is no historical data to rely on regarding set ups and race strategy.
Simulator time is beneficial, but it still doesn’t cover all aspects of real track time. That forces crew chiefs and engineers to make adjustment and pit strategies on the spot. Pay attention to see how strategies, pit calls and adjustments play out during the 67-lap event.
Race time is 3;30 p.m. Friday on FS1-TV and can be heard on NASCAR Radio Network in addition to Sirius XM NASCAR Ch. 90 for lap-by-lap coverage.
Corey Heim Wins NASCAR Truck Pole at Charlotte Roval