DARLINGTON, S.C. -- The regular-season champion just continues winning. Corey Heim has punched his ticket to the Round of 8 after a mistake-free afternoon at Darlington Raceway.
The Tricon Garage driver didn't start from the front of the pack, but he wasted little time before moving through the field in the No. 11 Toyota. Heim led 65 laps, the second-most on the day, and won the opening stage.
He then took advantage of issues that struck other drivers in the final stage. He led the final 20 laps and scored his eighth win of the season. He locked himself into the Round of 8 while other drivers stopped to see where they landed in the points.
MORE: Darlington Truck Series results
"So proud of these guys. It feels like I'm in a dream," Heim said after the race. "Eight wins is phenomenal. Crazy to look back on but so much to look forward to.
"Just really speechless as far as effort. Them, and Toyota and Safelite - it's been an awesome ride and we are going to keep going."
Daniel Hemric cross the line second. Fellow playoff drivers Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski followed. Trevor Bayne rounded out the top five while making his first Truck Series start since 2023.
The other playoff drivers in the top 10 included Tyler Ankrum in seventh and Jake Garcia in 10th.
Garcia posted this top-10 finish after recovering from a pit road penalty on Lap 53. It wasn't the finish he wanted, but he also avoided issues that plagued him in the past.
"I was just trying to pay really close attention to my right front tire," Garcia told AltDriver on pit road. "I felt like that was probably the one that we were wearing the worst, and so I was trying to pay attention to that, feel the steering wheel before I went into the corner, things like that.
"Just trying to make sure that all four tires were up before I got into the corner. I blew a tire getting into Turn 1 here last year, it was a really hard hit, so I don't want to do that again."
Garcia was not the only driver who set out to just finish a mistake-free race. Rajah Caruth also had this goal as he made his second playoff appearance.
He ultimately crossed the finish line in 12th place after struggling with speed and handling all day. Yet, he moved to four points above the cutline after avoiding issues.
"I just was trying to keep it clean," Caruth told AltDriver. "We obviously didn't have the speed we needed to today and definitely was looking for pace in our truck.
"But just wanted to make the most of it and not end our day where a lot of guys were having (issues), whether it was their fault or not. So that was kind of my mindset, just kind of preserving what we had and executing as a whole."
The Truck Series race featured multiple playoff drivers making unscheduled pit stops. Kaden Honeycutt and Ty Majeski both fell off the lead lap in the opening stage due to flat tires. They both got back on the lead lap, but Honeycutt then spun with 20 laps to go after contact with Andres Perez de Lara. This incident brought out the first caution for incident.
Layne Riggs, who led a race-high 71 laps, fell off the pace on the same lap that Honeycutt spun. He had a flat right front tire. This opened up the opportunity for Heim to take back the lead at a pivotal time.
The situation worsened for Riggs, who started the race from the pole. He remained on pit road in the closing laps as his crew worked on repairing the No. 34 Ford. The other playoff drivers headed back out to finish the race.
Riggs ultimately finished 17th but left Darlington 38 points above the Round of 8 cutline. Honeycutt finished one spot behind in 18th.
Chandler Smith showed speed during practice and qualifying, which he used to secure a starting spot on the front row. However, he did not make it to the end of the opening stage before running into significant issues.
Smith hit the wall on Lap 11, which knocked him out of the lead. One lap later, he made harder contact with the outside wall due to a flat tire. The Front Row Motorsports driver limped his truck back to pit road, where his crew began making repairs.
Smith made his way back onto the track after losing three laps, but he did not remain out on the track. He headed back to the garage after more problems and ultimately climbed out after completing only 14 laps.
Big #NASCARPlayoffs trouble for @CSmith_Racing!
The No. 38 goes from leading ... to slow on the backstretch! pic.twitter.com/4jIHmdL1ZH
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) August 30, 2025
"I'm just a little disappointed in myself. I had a really fast Ford F-150 today and just barely got the wall and then throttled up and got out of it, and then my right-front tire kind of got stuck and got stuck right back in it and suckered me in," Smith said after exiting the infield care center.
"We run steel bodies, so you can't really run the fence like you can in an Xfinity car or a Cup car without killing your day like that."
Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography
The Truck Series playoffs will continue at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 11. The Round of 10 will end at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 20.
Two drivers will see their championship dreams end at New Hampshire. The remaining eight will move on to the penultimate round of the playoffs.