Heim Starts 23rd, Takes Four Tires at the Final Stop, and Wins the DQS 250 at Michigan by 0.065
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Corey Heim started 23rd, took four tires at the final pit stop while the rest of the field went to two, worked from 11th to the front in the final 35 laps, and beat Kaden Honeycutt by 0.065 seconds to win the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 at Michigan. Carson Hocevar led 65 laps and finished third. Christopher Bell swept both stages and finished sixth.
The Short Version
Bell leads from green and wins Stage 1 and Stage 2. Hocevar leads the most laps and is the fastest truck on the property. Final stop at lap 89: Hocevar takes two tires, Heim takes four, restarts 11th. Heim charges to the front. Last lap: Heim blocks Honeycutt into turn 1, Honeycutt gets a run off turn 4, doesn’t have enough. Heim wins by 0.065. Riggs fourth, trails Riggs in standings by 26 at the top of the series.
What Happened
Bell cleared for the lead at the green and was immediately the class of the field. He gave Hocevar a push on the frontstretch to establish track position early, then held that position through Stage 1 — winning the stage at lap 30 ahead of Hocevar, Honeycutt, Smith, and Riggs. Bell won Stage 2 at lap 60 for the sweep. The Stage 2 note in the data: the fourth time he’s swept both stages in a race, and he went on to win two of the previous three instances.
He didn’t go on to win this one.
Hocevar led through the middle stages — passing Bell for the lead at lap 38, giving it back, taking it again on the lap 75 restart. He was the fastest truck in the race with a lap of 183.542 mph and led 65 of 125 laps. The question heading into the final pit cycle was who would have the better strategy.
At lap 89, the field cycled through. Hocevar took two right-side tires. Heim took four. Smith and Riggs also took two. Heim restarted 11th. From there he picked off trucks on the outside line, moved into contention through the final 25 laps, and caught Honeycutt — who had also taken four tires — at the front. On the final lap, Heim blocked Honeycutt into turn 1. Honeycutt got a run off turn 4 and closed to his bumper but couldn’t complete the pass. Heim won by 0.065.
The Defining Moment
Lap 89. Heim took four tires in a field that mostly went to two. He restarted 11th and needed 35 laps to reach the front. That he had enough truck left to not only catch Hocevar and Honeycutt but also hold off Honeycutt on the final lap is the result in one strategic decision.
The One That Got Away
Hocevar. He led 65 laps — more than anyone — had the fastest lap of the race, and started the final run second on fresher-on-paper two-tire rubber. He faded to third as Heim’s four-tire grip advantage made the difference in the final sequence. The truck was good enough to win. The pit call wasn’t.
Bell is the other answer. Swept both stages, led 37 laps from the front, had the fastest average speed in Stage 1 and Stage 2. Then an ineligible Cup cameo that never threatened for the win in Stage 3, finishing sixth while the four-tire trucks ran him down. The stage points don’t appear in his Trucks standings total — he’s an ineligible entry — but the lap count is real.
Numbers That Matter
- Winner: Corey Heim — No. 1 · Toyota
- Margin of Victory: 0.065 seconds
- Cautions: 7 for 34 laps
- Lead Changes: 20 among 6 leaders
- Stage 1: Christopher Bell | Stage 2: Christopher Bell
- Laps Led: Hocevar — 65 | Bell — 37 | Heim — 15 | Majeski — 5 | Dye — 3 | Honeycutt — 1
- Fastest Lap: Corey Heim — 183.613 mph (Lap 104)
Take
Heim’s third Trucks win of the 2026 season. He’s won at three different track types and consistently arrived from deep in the field — starting 23rd today, doing something similar in previous wins. The four-tire call when the leaders went to two is the kind of strategic read that produces wins when the execution follows, and Heim had the speed to back it up in the final 35 laps.
The Bell result is the recurring story of Michigan weekend across all three series. He swept stages and led 37 laps as an ineligible Cup cameo. The trucks championship doesn’t credit his stage wins or his lap count, but the competitive picture is clear: the fastest eligible truck on Saturday wasn’t Bell, it was Hocevar, and the fastest full-time driver in the standings wasn’t Bell, it was Heim.
Riggs finishes fourth and leads the Trucks standings at 497 points — 26 ahead of Honeycutt. Honeycutt’s second-place finish at Michigan is the best result Honeycutt has had in the last four races, and it’s not enough to cut significantly into the gap. Riggs has three wins, six top-fives, and the points lead. Honeycutt has one win and eight top-fives and has been the more consistent finisher across the full season. The 26-point gap is the story at the top of the series going into Pocono.
Notes
- Riggs received a 30-minute practice penalty for an inspection failure but still finished fourth and leads the standings by 26.
- Bell’s stage sweep is his fourth such performance in a Trucks race. He won two of the previous three times he swept stages — Michigan wasn’t the third. He’s not eligible for Trucks championship points.
- Hocevar’s 65 laps led on a day he finished third is the most wasted lap count by a Trucks driver at Michigan in 2026. He was the fastest truck on the property.
- Chandler Smith finishes fifth, holds third in the Trucks standings at 407 — 90 back of Riggs, 64 behind Honeycutt.
- The margin of 0.065 is the second-closest Trucks finish at Michigan in the last five seasons.
- Heim’s win keeps him 11th in the Trucks standings at 274 points — 9 points behind Hemric in 9th and 23 points outside the playoff bubble at 8th. Three wins and 11th in points is a function of the races he’s missed.