DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The NASCAR season has started with a change to the finishing order. Daytona International Speedway winner Parker Kligerman has been disqualified.
NASCAR announced the news late Friday night after Kligerman conducted a post-race press conference to discuss his Craftsman Truck Series win. According to the update provided by NASCAR Communications, the No. 75 Henderson Chevrolet failed rear heights during post-race inspection. Both sides of the truck were too low.
With the disqualification, NASCAR named runner-up Corey Heim the winner. The Tricon Garage driver tallied his 12th career Truck Series win and his second on a superspeedway. His first career win was at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2022.
"Well, it is my first time having this kind of scenario happening either way, so certainly glad to be on the right side of it," Heim said after hearing the news. "It sucks for Parker (Kligerman) and those guys.
"It seemed like they put themselves in a position at the right time to win the race, but obviously, there is another level to it after the race. Grateful to be in the spot to take advantage of that. Huge props to everyone at Tricon Garage, Toyota, Safelite - first win under the Toyota Gazoo Racing banner, so that is cool. We will move to Atlanta and try to get another one."
Heim is not the only driver who benefited from NASCAR disqualifying Kligerman. Gio Ruggerio, who made his first career start on Friday night, scored his first career runner-up finish. Ruggerio had originally crossed the line third under caution.
"I was leading that pack for a couple laps, and I think five or six to go is when I lost the lead there," Ruggerio said after the race.
"I knew it was coming, and I knew they were going to have lines forming up and that it was going to get crazy. I'm just glad we could hang on and have a strong finish and a good truck there for the end."