Martinsville was the site of the Boys and Girls Club of the Blue Ridge 200. Corey Heim was fastest in qualifying, so he started the race on the pole. Ty Majeski joined him on the front row. Kaden Honeycutt and Chandler Smith started the race in the second row. Daniel Hemric rounded out the top five. The race was 200 laps, with stage lengths of 50 laps for the first and second stages, and the final stage was 100 laps. This was the first race of the Triple Truck Challenge for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Corey in the House

Heim got a good launch at the start and was able to get to the lead. Majeski settled into second. Honeycutt went on the offensive early. He battled Majeski for second but could not make the pass. The field single-filed out as the bottom lane was the quickest around.

Ben Rhodes made moves early after starting in 20th and getting up to 15th before lap 15. The first caution came when Heim used his bumper to move Ryan Roulette. Roulette appeared to try to get out of the leader’s way but could not do it quickly enough.

Heim and Majeski brought the field back to the green flag. Heim was able to retake his lead. Honeycutt dove underneath Majeski and snatched second place. Tanner Gray tried to use that opening to follow but was unable to make it stick. Layne Riggs got spun around with Connor Mosack being the culprit. That brought out the second caution of the evening.

Heim and Honeycutt restarted the race on the front row for the 20-lap shootout to the end of the stage. Heim reassumed his lead out front, pulling out by over a second. Norm Benning limped his truck onto pit road, claiming his car just shut off. Heim led every lap in the stage and got the win!

Corey Keeps Dominating

Heim and Honeycutt restarted the race on the front row, and Heim scampered away in the lead. Honeycutt reassumed the second place. The field singled out early. Riggs used his fresher tires to get back into the top 15. Luke Baldwin started to drive through the field. He started in 27th and looked to get into the top ten.

Heim held his lead at just under a second and a half. No one could really get close to him. No one had anything for the leader. On very used tires, he was able to keep growing his lead. At the end of the stage he led Honeycutt by over two and a half seconds. Heim led them all to win stage two!

The Cautions Begin

Rajah Caruth and Matt Crafton brought us back to green. Caruth got a huge jump and snagged the lead, and Crafton settled in second. Baldwin brought out the next caution after he overcooked turn one and got into Corey Day.

Caruth and Crafton restarted the race on the front row. Heim made his way onto the second row. Caruth got another great restart. Jack Wood was able to get beside Crafton. Heim dove to the inside and passed them both into turn three. Heim completed the pass on Caruth to retake the lead.

Corey Heim grew his lead to over a second over Majeski. It seemed to settle out for a few laps, but then Heim began to grow his lead. Jack Wood voiced his displeasure with Grant Enfinger after getting squeezed into the wall.

Corey Day brought out the next caution when he got turned by Dawson Sutton. Sutton seemed to just run over Day into turn one.

Heim and Majeski restarted the race. Heim scampered out to the lead. Chandler Smith made the aggressive move to the inside line to make it three-wide with Majeski and Honeycutt. Jake Garcia got into Luke Baldwin to bring out the seventh caution.

Cautions Continued

Heim got a great launch, but Honeycutt did not let him get away. He pushed Heim hard for the lead. Heim cut his left rear tire off of a fender of Honeycutt and got into the wall and turned around. That brought out the eighth caution of the evening.

Honeycutt and Tyler Ankrum restarted on the front row. Honeycutt got a good launch and was able to clear for the lead. Ankrum and Majeski battled side by side for second. Majeski ultimately prevailed to take the spot. The ninth caution came out when Grant Enfinger got into Tanner Gray and turned him around. Enfinger drifted up the track to avoid the spinner but collected Jack Wood.

Honeycutt and Ankrum, again, brought the green flag back out. Majeski got the better start to take the lead. He opened the bottom lane for Majeski to peak into. Majeski was unable to slow for the turn and got into Honeycutt. That spun both of them around. Honeycutt got the worst of it as he backed into the wall.

Ankrum and Jake Garcia took the green flag, but Garcia got a bad restart. Ankrum snagged the lead with nine to go. Hemric looked to pass Ankrum. Riggs almost got turned around but was able to keep it straight.

With three to go, Hemric was able to get underneath Ankrum and pass for the lead. He did not look back. Daniel Hemric got his first truck series win! Ankrum finished in second, with Garcia in third. Hemric also won the first of the Triple Truck Challenge.

Marvin’s Moment:

The first half of that race was clean and well raced. The second half was a terrible showing of no patience and just driving through each other. I feel like the truck season, up until the last 100 laps of the Martinsville race, has been great. That is what Martinsville produces, though. The trucks seemed not to be able to pass unless you literally moved someone out of the way.

What a great win for Hemric! And also, another disappointment for Heim. He will be such a talent when he gets out of the Truck Series. Bad luck and some equipment failures have kept him from victory lane twice this season. He could easily have four wins on the year so far.