Corey Heim is accomplishing feats NASCAR hasn't seen in decades

Corey Heim is a special driver, and I think we were already aware of that even before his recent Cup victories. He’s won 26 Truck races in less than 100 starts, and toppled various records there en route to his 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title.

But there’s always an adjustment period when a rising star moves up to Cup, right? Well, maybe not for Heim. 23XI Racing being a top-level team certainly helps, but Heim is actively beating fellow Toyota drivers like Reddick, Hamlin and Bell in head-to-head battles.

He won at the San Diego Street Course by passing Reddick late in the race, and he reclaimed the lead from Hamlin on the final restart of the Brickyard 400, before withstanding the pressure of Bell in the closing laps to win that race as well.

In doing so, Heim is accomplishing feats NASCAR hasn’t seen in literally decades. 

Two wins in first 15 starts (Last achieved in 1965)

Corey Heim is the first driver to win two races in just his first 15 career starts as a NASCAR Cup driver since A.J. Foyt did it in 1965 — 61 years ago. Foyt managed to win the summer Daytona race in both 1964 and 1965 while competing part-time. The legendary driver also won those races with two different race teams, which even Heim won’t can’t match.

Youngest Brickyard 400 since 1994

Heim won the Brickyard 400 in his very first attempt, doing so less than a month after his 24th birthday. The Cup race at Indianapolis hasn’t been won by a driver so young since Jeff Gordon won the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994. He achieved that just two days after his 23rd birthday. 

Winning multiple races as a part-timer (Last achieved in 1987)

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of all this is the fact that Heim has done all this as a part-time driver. Driving the unchartered No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, Heim has only started eight of the first 22 races of the 2026 season. A part-time driver winning a Cup race has only happened a few times in the 21st century, but winning multiple races in a single season as a part-time driver? Well, that hasn’t happened since 1987, nearly four decades ago. Davey Allison ran 22 of 29 races that year, winning twice. However, a better comparison is Tim Richmond, who also won two races in the 1987 season. Like Heim, he accomplished this in just eight starts that year. While Allison was just starting his career at the time, ’87 was Richmond’s final season as he was suffering from AIDS, sadly dying two years later. Since that year, no part-time driver has managed to win multiple races in a single season until Heim’s 2026 campaign.

Some other notable statistics

Heim is also the only part-time driver to ever win the Brickyard 400, and the first part-timer to win any of the four NASCAR crown jewels since Trevor Bayne’s 2011 Daytona 500 triumph.

He is truly making the most of this opportunity with 23XI, even before he competes at the Cup level full-time. It’s been just 35 days between his first and second career victories, matching Jimmie Johnson, and just a few days removed (in either direction) from names like Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and even his boss, Denny Hamlin (42 days).

Heim has led a total of 139 laps in his eight Cup starts this year, which ranks 14th and above several notable full-time drivers.

What’s next: Heim has four races left on his 2026 schedule, with plans to race at the regular season finale at Daytona (August 29), another crown jewel race at Darlington with the Southern 500 (September 6), the return of the fall oval race at Charlotte Motor Speedway (October 11), and the title-decider at Homestead-Miami Speedway (November 8).

Read Also:

The part-time drivers who have beaten the odds to win a modern NASCAR Cup race

After 650 starts, the No. 67 has finally won a NASCAR Cup race
To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.