NASCAR CUP SERIES: BRICKYARD 400

July 26, 2026

Corey Heim

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our race winner, Corey Heim.

This is your second win in 15 starts. It's here in Indianapolis. Can you talk to us about the race, what this means for you.

COREY HEIM: Yeah, man, it's truly just a crazy accomplishment. Win here at the Brickyard, get two wins like this in my part-time year, it's been a heck of a year, heck of a few years really leading up to this point.

Really I know everyone dreams about being able to do this. To be able to execute today and just do everything right, beat a lot of guys that haven't done it before, wanted to kiss the bricks today, it's a really cool feeling.

So grateful for 23XI, Toyota, Field & Stream, first race for them. To come here and win is really special for them. They were hyped up. That was cool.

Yeah, just on cloud nine right now. It's been awesome.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. You have more crown jewel wins or as many as quite a few notable drivers. How do you comprehend that?

COREY HEIM: It's cool to talk about, I guess. I don't really ever keep up with how many crown jewel wins most guys have, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, just to be able to win it for myself is just insane. Just super thankful for 23XI, Toyota, everyone that put me in position to do this. Hopefully cross some more off in my career. Who knows, maybe we can win all of them one day. We'll see.

Q. What was going on with Hocevar? Gave you the finger at one point?

COREY HEIM: That's a good question. I'm not too sure. I was blocking him, not really too bad I thought. I was trying to just hold my position. I never threw like a bad block. I was just trying to protect my entry. He didn't like it. He lost and I won, so I don't really care.

Q. You win a ton of Truck races. Do you think, Okay, I should win Cup races relatively right away?

COREY HEIM: Not necessarily, no. The competition in this series is kind of like no other. But the fact that we've kind of had everything line up really well as far as the speed in these Toyotas this year with 23XI specifically, have been just surreal.

To be a part of this program when they've hit their peak and hopefully we can keep it there for as long as I'm with them, I hope, they've definitely been riding high this year. To be able to be a part of that.

I know not every year is going to be in the best car. I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, execute while our cars are really fast. The fact that we were able to do it twice this year in I think seven or eight starts is definitely a crazy feeling, something I didn't expect coming into the year by any means.

I feel like coming from Trucks, you want to win every race you enter, but this is a different ballgame here. It's a very tough series. I've picked up my prep and intensity on how I run these races. So far it's gotten me two wins. I should keep doing it, I guess.

Q. Does this change your expectations for next season? Most people would say you're going to be a Chase driver next year.

COREY HEIM: Yeah, that's my goal. I think that's a realistic goal for me. I definitely felt like this year started off rockier than I would have liked. I went to Daytona and crashed. Kansas we finished worse than we did the previous year. It been a steady incline up to this point. Winning San Diego, top 10 in Chicago, winning here, it's been a heck of a last couple races.

If you asked me four months ago what my expectations were for 2027, I would have answered differently than now for sure.

I think my expectations were always to make the Playoffs right off the bat my first full-time season. I've had a lot of part-time seasons up to this point, a lot of seat time, time to think about it. Certainly as we keep up the speed in these Camrys, I definitely want to make the Playoffs next year.

Q. Why do you feel like you've just adapted to the series so well right off the bat?

COREY HEIM: I mean, I think a little bit of it goes into just running the part-time schedule, being able to sort of have gaps between each race. I feel like it's pretty rare that you see someone run this bridge year as far as part-time Cup to then go to full-time Cup. A lot of guys go straight from O'Reilly or Trucks to Cup without a lot of experience.

Being able to debrief and think about each race, be very methodical on how to get better after each race. You typically have two or three weeks to do so. Also prep for the next one. I think it definitely makes a big difference.

I can't imagine guys that have limited starts in the Cup series, go from a Truck or O'Reilly into a Cup car 39 weeks out of a year, that sounds pretty brutal to me.

The fact that I've had this schedule and been able to mend into that full-time year has helped me, I think.

Q. You're the first driver since AJ Foyt in 1965 to win two of your first 15 races. What does that mean?

COREY HEIM: I'm not much of a stats guy honestly. Sounds like it's a pretty good one. Definitely cool to be included with a guy like that. Been a crazy year so far. To win two of my first 15 is something I never thought I would accomplish, but here we are. It's a crazy feeling.

Q. How does it feel to be only the second driver from Georgia to win a Brickyard 400?

COREY HEIM: Who was the other one?

Q. Bill Elliott.

COREY HEIM: That makes sense.

Really cool. I never really ventured up here to watch many Indy 500s or Brickyard 400s when I was a kid, being in Georgia. Being able to go to Atlanta Motor Speedway, Charlotte, Martinsville when I was a kid, cheer my favorite drivers on, that really is what fired me up about the sport.

Of course, I watched the Brickyard 400 every year. I raced a quarter midget when I was nine-ish years old, maybe 10 years old. They set up barriers in the infield and had us race. I remember that being a really cool feeling. I got to sit in my quarter midget, made a lap around the course.

It was too far away to be here out of Georgia, look back when I was 10 years old racing quarter midgets here, it's a pretty special feeling, for sure.

Q. The two wins here, how does that affect your confidence level going into next year? You're going to be going in as a rookie, but it doesn't feel like you're going to be competing as a rookie.

COREY HEIM: I think the outside expectations would probably be higher than what they would be, of course, if I didn't win. I don't know, I feel like I'm pretty good at just kind of focusing on myself and focusing on the task at hand, not getting too caught up in what other people say or think, just making sure I do my job and execute as I should.

I try my best to not let the outside noise affect -- or expectations affect what I do on the racetrack. I'm going to try to keep doing that as I progress through my rookie season.

Q. Your mentality in the closing laps there, it's one of those situations where clean air is your friend, but you could easily slip up or let the pressure get to you. That's where you could lose that race. How did you stay composed, not let that creep in, keep doing what you needed to do without letting it affect you in the moment?

COREY HEIM: Yeah, I mean, it was a mental battle, for sure. My Camry was really fast today. I definitely struggled the last 20 laps to hold onto it. That was the last time I had done a long run in clean air. There was a lot of shade that went over the racetrack. Changed my balance to being really free. I was truly hanging on, doing everything I possibly could.

My mentality, to answer your question, was really good off the corner, two and four specifically, as best as I could just to make sure he couldn't get a big run on me.

I think it was three to go there was one big run he got off of four into one, I simply slid through four and had a lack of momentum and he had a big run. So I just did everything I could to defend, shut his air off. After I got that gap back, I thought like all I got to do is execute, get to the curb, milk this thing home at that point.

It was a mental battle, for sure. A lot different than San Diego being 10 seconds out in front of the field.

Props to Christopher for keeping me honest. He's honestly been a great resource for me in my short career so far. Glad we could battle it out. I knew he would never put us in danger of wrecking or anything. So that was nice to have him around me.

Q. Were you surprised he tried to take it around the outside?

COREY HEIM: I mean, honestly, I wouldn't say how predictable the runs are, but you can materialize everything as it happens because you're sitting around the straightaway. The runs aren't massive by any means. They're slow runs. I knew I messed up out of four in that lap.

I immediately looked in my rearview camera, saw him approaching, and I was just instantly in defense mode. Every restart I had starting on the outside, there's way less grip on that second groove. I have would have been appalled if he could have pulled it off around the outside. I was just worried about the bottom. Last thing you want to do is get stuck up on the top groove, or second groove I should say. I was worried about defending that, and I figured he would fall back after that.

Q. Back to the moment that got you that lead at the end, you have to pass your boss to do so. What were you thinking in this moment?

COREY HEIM: Yeah, I mean, coming into this race we knew that restarts were going to be completely crucial to the outcome of the race. As we wound down, I was sitting there talking to my spotter Eddie and crew chief Bootie. They both just said, We got to muscle up on this restart. This is more than likely going to decide the outcome of the race.

That was before Denny got the lead on me. Joey tried to put me three there, kill both of our momentum. That got Denny the lead. I thought that was potentially the race. Got another caution. Here we go, might have a shot at it. Then Joey gave me a really good push up front.

I was surprised Denny got through one as good as he did. I thought I sealed the bottom off decent. He got a really good run. I had to pull down and block him again. At that point I figured I would settle in with the lead there.

Q. Back to your history, is that something you're cognizant of who is behind you, doing what you can because it's him behind you, or it doesn't matter?

COREY HEIM: It had nothing to do with him. The way the pit cycles shake out here, you have to do everything you can to keep a guy behind you because you'll typically cycle out in front of him. The lap time that you have to come to pit road and put tires on is a couple seconds faster than a regular lap time. A little less in the lap you lose by pitting.

If I kept him behind me, executed my green flag stop perfectly, there was going to be a big gap. That's exactly what happened.

It's a big track position race as you saw today. You got to do whatever you can. Had zero to do with who was behind me. Could have been anybody. Definitely changed the outcome of the race for sure.

Q. San Diego and the Brickyard, two of the biggest races of the summer, what has allowed you to shine in these big-time moments?

COREY HEIM: Just a lot of prep, man. A lot of mental prep, a lot of physical prep. Yeah, just really happy to be a part of this organization, 23XI, Toyota. They're at the top of their game right now.

Once again, talking about what I said earlier, if I can just execute and do what I need to do, the cars have so much speed right now, it speaks for themselves. I've done a not-so-great job at some of the races. Nashville is one that sticks out to me. I was probably destined to finish anywhere between second and fifth that race, if not maybe getting lucky on the restart and winning the race.

That was a tough one. That was our best shot at having a good run. Ever since then I've elevated my prep and game to make sure I don't make these vital mistakes throughout the race anymore. It takes 100% of me. I'm trying to give it.

Q. To win here, a traditional oval, what does it mean to you to get the first oval win in the Cup Series?

COREY HEIM: Yeah, it's two totally different racetracks we've been able to execute on. Just being here at the Brickyard means so much. Just even being able to start the race. I remember getting goose bumps on the grid with the flyover, not even thinking about the result of the race, what it would be in a couple hours from there.

To come here and win, it's absolutely surreal. Just couldn't fathom telling myself as a little kid I was going to be a crown jewel winner one day. To be here and soak all that in is a really special feeling, for sure.

Q. Your crew chief Bootie mentioned the radio discussion before the final restart. He was talking about your relationship. Discuss the relationship you have with Bootie. Do you hope you stay paired with him next year?

COREY HEIM: Bootie is the man, for sure. He's awesome. One of the most liked if not the most liked people at 23XI.

When he came off the full-time deal with Bubba, I knew he was going to be my part-time crew chief, I was I hope he doesn't feel distraught about getting off of a full-time deal or anything, has a lot of motivation. I quickly learned he does not let anything bother him. Super motivated, eyes forward guy, family man. Good person.

To have our off-track relationship be really strong, then just to have faith he can execute a race as well as he has done this year, get us two wins so far, it's not every day you get to go to the racetrack and have a comfort with a crew chief just knowing you can trust them with everything. I've had a lot of moments in my career where I feel like I doubted my crew chief a lot. That's driver instinct.

When you can find a guy that knows what they're doing, you can trust them, it certainly makes it a lot easier.

Q. A lot of people on social media are already saying they can't wait to see the rivalry between you and Carson next year when you both are full-time in this series. Is it too early to consider him a rival?

COREY HEIM: Where did he finish today?

Q. Ninth.

COREY HEIM: You love talking about a guy that finished ninth. Holy crap.

Yeah, I mean, all I did was make sure he stayed behind me. I did. I finished in front of him. I don't worry about a narrative or a genre. He has a ton of talent. He's going to win a lot of races. I'm focused on myself and trying to do the same. That's really all there is to it.

Q. I know you believe in yourself and know you can win these races. You're not surprised. At the same time, it's the Brickyard 400. There's so many drivers over the years, Denny has been trying his entire career to win this race. You have just done it. No 'holy shit' element to you sitting up here? Wow, I cannot believe here I am?

COREY HEIM: Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that. I feel like the biggest, most I guess I don't know what the word is for it, the most meaningful wins in my career have so much buildup to it.

I think about the Truck championship last year. All I did all year was worry about not winning the Truck championship. Every win, but I'm worried about the championship. That had so much buildup behind it, it was super emotional for me, such a big deal for myself just to take a deep breath and say I finally did it, won a championship. It took three years for me to do it.

This is so out of the ordinary, no expectations coming into this to win the race. It's everyone's goal, it's my goal. But it's so crazy to me that it hasn't really touched me yet. It's so out of the ordinary.

No, I know it's going to be a special moment. I was talking to somebody earlier, I feel like as time goes on, I'll be able to appreciate these more and more. Even myself looking back at San Diego, a little over a month ago now, I appreciate it and enjoy it more than I did in the moment because I can understand how hard it is to do these things. You're competing at the top level. These guys are all very, very good.

Every time I have a bad race, it makes you really appreciate the wins. It's not easy to do.

Q. How are you going to celebrate the win tonight?

COREY HEIM: That's a good question. I haven't even been able to think much at all about anything past this moment. I'm having a good time. We're going to figure it out, for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.

COREY HEIM: Thanks, guys.