{"id":865959,"date":"2026-08-21T08:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865959\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:02:18","slug":"corey-heim-has-bigger-goals-after-breakout-nascar-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865959\/","title":{"rendered":"Corey Heim Has Bigger Goals After Breakout NASCAR Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corey Heim has yet to run a full NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> season. He already knows what it feels like to win at the sport\u2019s highest level.<\/p>\n

Twice.<\/p>\n

That has changed the equation for the 24-year-old<\/a> as he looks toward what comes next.<\/p>\n

Heim has turned limited Cup opportunities into two victories in 2026, proving that his success elsewhere in NASCAR can translate against the sport\u2019s best. More importantly, those wins have given Heim something he could not get from any amount of preparation or promise: proof that he can finish the job at this level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to go out and win Truck races or [O\u2019Reilly] races, but to be able to show you\u2019re able to win Cup races, it\u2019s just a whole different level, you know?\u201d Heim told MotorBiscuit in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n

Heim is still early in his Cup career, but he\u2019s no longer talking simply about gaining experience or preparing for the future. He\u2019s talking about winning more races. He\u2019s talking about making the Chase. He\u2019s talking about eventually competing for a championship.<\/p>\n

And if NASCAR decides he can\u2019t compete for Rookie of the Year when he moves into his first full-time Cup season in 2027?<\/p>\n

Heim has thoughts on that, too.<\/p>\n

Corey Heim\u2019s Cup wins proved something even he didn\u2019t expect this soon<\/p>\n

Heim entered 2026 knowing he would have opportunities in competitive equipment. Knowing a car is capable of winning, however, and actually taking it to Victory Lane are entirely different things.<\/p>\n

Heim has now done the latter twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for the most part, it\u2019s just so important to be able to show you\u2019re able to win a race in the Cup Series,\u201d Heim said. And that gives me a lot of confidence, of course in myself, but also my team, organization, manufacturer\u2014kind of all the above there.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is an important distinction in Heim\u2019s assessment. He isn\u2019t treating those wins as confirmation that future success is inevitable.<\/p>\n

Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

He understands how quickly circumstances can change in NASCAR and how rare it is to consistently have cars capable of winning. When those opportunities arrive, a driver has to capitalize.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be able to take advantage of the speed that we have this year is super important,\u201d Heim said. \u201cThere\u2019s highs and lows in racing, and you can\u2019t count on having winning cars every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Heim didn\u2019t necessarily envision winning twice during what he described as a \u201cquote-unquote rookie season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for myself to be able to take advantage of that in a quote-unquote rookie season at this point, and be able to win twice, it\u2019s something I would have not really expected coming into the season by any means,\u201d Heim said. \u201cBut I knew [it] was something that we were capable of as a team and an organization. So, to be able to go out and prove that just means a lot, and definitely want to keep riding this high and win a couple more this year, hopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two wins, in other words, haven\u2019t satisfied him.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve raised the ceiling.<\/p>\n

Michael Jordan has become a valuable resource for Heim<\/p>\n

Heim also has access to a perspective few young NASCAR drivers could ever replicate.<\/p>\n

One of the people helping him navigate the mental side of elite competition is Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s involvement with 23XI Racing gives Heim a direct line to someone who spent his career operating under extraordinary expectations. And according to Heim, Jordan\u2019s impact goes well beyond his presence as a team owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael\u2019s been a great person to lean on for mental advice, and also just being able to hear his\u2014I don\u2019t want to call it a pep talk by any means, because even he said he doesn\u2019t want it to be taken as a pep talk\u2014but he was just there the other week and gave us a really good talk in general,\u201d Heim said. \u201cReally got us pumped up for the Chase, for our full-time guys, and me included in that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

What resonates with Heim isn\u2019t simply Jordan\u2019s championship r\u00e9sum\u00e9. It\u2019s his ability to take experiences from his basketball career and life beyond it and make them relevant to another competitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motivation that comes from him speaking is unlike anybody else,\u201d Heim said. \u201cI feel like he just is so good at being able to put those experiences into words, and also be able to just show you how to overcome tough things in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan has everyone\u2019s attention when he talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he\u2019s always just been a great asset,\u201d Heim said. \u201cI mean, for the last two years, I\u2019ve been a part of the organization now, every time he speaks, everyone listens and takes notes, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin gives Heim something different.<\/p>\n

Where Jordan can speak from the perspective of an all-time great whose playing career is long over, Hamlin understands precisely what Heim is facing inside a Cup car. Heim finds value in having both viewpoints available as his own career begins to accelerate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Denny as well, he\u2019s, of course, more of a personal approach because he\u2019s involved directly in racing as a driver, and of course MJ\u2019s more on the owner side,\u201d Heim said. \u201cSo, kind of two different outlooks on those two things, but really puts it all in perspective for myself as a young driver that\u2019s kind of just starting my career versus MJ and Denny, who one\u2019s finished with their career and the other\u2019s kind of coming to a close.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a young driver already winning Cup races before his first full-time season, that perspective could become increasingly valuable.<\/p>\n

Heim didn\u2019t expect the Rookie of the Year Situation<\/p>\n

There is one unusual consequence of Heim getting so much Cup experience before 2027.<\/p>\n

His Rookie of the Year eligibility<\/a> has become a question.<\/p>\n

Heim acknowledged he expected to be able to compete for the honor during his first full-time Cup season, although he also cautioned that he doesn\u2019t know whether NASCAR has made a final decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was a little unexpected. I kind of expected to be able to compete next year, but I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s fully decided on\u2014on what their plan is on\u2014on the NASCAR side,\u201d Heim said.<\/p>\n

He also made his own position clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I would love to be able to compete for it and feel like I certainly should qualify as a rookie if I haven\u2019t, you know, run a full-time season yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be understandable if Heim were frustrated by the possibility of losing eligibility before his first full Cup campaign ever begins.<\/p>\n

Instead, his response offered perhaps the clearest indication of how much his expectations have changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, at the same time, it\u2019s not the end of the world, and my goal is to make the Chase next year and be able to compete for a championship and win some more races, which I think are bigger fish to fry than Rookie of the Year,\u201d Heim said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d like the opportunity to compete for the award. He also isn\u2019t going to measure his 2027 season by whether NASCAR gives him that chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I\u2019d love to compete for it, but if I can\u2019t, then, no big deal. We\u2019ll go for some wins and try to compete for a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s quite a set of expectations for a driver who hasn\u2019t started his first full Cup season.<\/p>\n

Then again, Heim isn\u2019t entering that season wondering whether he can win a Cup race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s already answered that question twice. Now he wants to find out just how much more he can win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corey Heim has yet to run a full NASCAR Cup Series season. He already knows what it feels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,28942,634,82],"class_list":["post-865959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-corey-heim","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}