Corey Heim Earns Kevin Harvick’s Respect, Top NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Drivers’ Championship Odds

Kevin Harvick knows what he’s talking about.

Retiring in 2023 with 60 career NASCAR Cup Series wins over 23 seasons, Harvick has turned into a popular podcaster. On Tuesday, he dedicated a “Happy Hour” segment on Craftsman Truck Series points leader Corey Heim’s ill-advised move against during a cameo appearance on the premier circuit last Sunday.

Appearing in his fifth Cup event, Heim, while racing in the middle of the field at Nashville Superspeedway, aggressively pulled in front of veteran Brad Keselowski. Sensing both machines would be compromised, the 2012 Cup champion ended up taking out the rookie.

Dominant on the Truck Series, Heim’s compiled four wins and 10 top-10 finishes in 12 starts. His average starts (5.8) matched his average finishes (5.8). He capped 2024 with a second-place finish in the drivers’ standings and third place in ‘23.

Success has yet to follow Heim to the Cup series. In five starts, his best finish is P13. In his latest appearance at Nashville Superspeedway, he drove his banged-up machine to the garage area after 130 laps.

Heim likely learned few lessons.

Harvick said the 22-year-old should grow from the experience.

“The spotter kept telling him outside and he just made a mistake getting up the racetrack trying to take everything he can get and just misjudged,” Harvick said on his podcast. “But those are all the experiences as much as we’ve talked about Corey Heim needing to be here already, you still see the rookie mistakes and the inexperience at the Cup level in scenarios like this. These are all things he’s gotta go through and in the end, I truly believe that Corey Heim will be a Cup Series winner.

“Once we get three to five years down the road, I think we’ll be talking about Corey Heim winning Cup races. Once they get the right crew chief and team around him and gets that 100 races under his belt – he’s already done better than most guys that step into the car in a short amount of time. But again, that’s not a fair judgment of how he’s going to do because until you’re in this grind every single week and have to deal with the sponsors and the media and the criticism at a level you’ve never experienced before in Trucks and Xfinity, I don’t know.

“It could mentally break him. I don’t think it will, based upon what I’ve seen so far and how he reacts to things, but it’s another level on the Cup side as to that pressure and things that go with this, especially when you have a bad race, and then you have another bad race and then it’s, ‘He’s not ready for this.’ How do you deal with that? Can you rebound and not care like [Carson] Hocevar? He doesn’t care. He can deal with the mental side of it.”

Heim (-105) enters Saturday’s Truck Series event at Michigan International Speedway as the heavy sports-betting favorite to earn his first circuit championship, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Jussssssst not enough room for Corey Heim to squeeze in front of the No. 6. pic.twitter.com/gKkCNOhd4g

— Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) June 2, 2025

2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Odds      

Here is a Week 13 look at the drivers’ odds for the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, according to FanDuel Sportsbook:  

*-Odds current at time of publication