Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Our series continues with our fourth consecutive series points leader interview: Corey Heim, current leader in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Tricon Garage. This interview has been condensed and edited, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions podcast.
1. What was one of the first autographs you got as a kid, and what do you remember about that moment?
My family would go to the Fourth of July weekend at Daytona when I was growing up. It’s my birthday weekend (he was born July 5), so it’s always a fun thing for me. I grew up a big Denny (Hamlin) fan, so I remember going to his merch trailer at the time. His mom (Mary Lou) ran his trailer, and we had no idea, but my mom made it a point that it was my birthday to see if we could get something extra because it was my favorite driver.
They gave me a rookie card of his that was pre-signed. I thought (it) was the coolest thing ever, because within that we met his mom and we didn’t know at first. (Heim is now a development driver for 23XI Racing, which Hamlin co-owns.)
2. What is the most miserable you’ve ever been inside of a race car?
In 2021 at Watkins Glen, I had to run Kyle Busch’s shell (for the seat at Kyle Busch Motorsports). Kyle sits really strangely; he’s very low and his legs are like cramped up into his chest. That’s like the opposite of what I need, because I get a lot of hip cramping, so I need my legs to be really straight out so they’re not clenched the whole time.
It was my second-ever Truck start, and I was so uncomfortable. By the middle of Stage 2, my hips cramped up on me. I literally couldn’t walk when I got out of the truck. My guys had to carry me by both shoulders back to the hauler, and they were giving me cramping pills.
3. Outside of racing, what is your most recent memory of something you got way too competitive about?
My girlfriend (Taylor Reimer) loves Monopoly. She’s really competitive, and I’m really competitive, and that makes us clash a little bit. You know how you charge rent? There was one instance where I went to go check my phone, and I forgot to charge her rent for being on my property. And I’m like, “Hey, weren’t you on my property?” And she’s like, “Yeah, but you weren’t paying attention. You have to tell me that I owe you money for rent.” And I’m like, “What? That’s not how a board game works. If you’re on my property, you pay me rent.” She’s like, “No, you weren’t paying attention.”
So the next time comes around, and I was on some other person’s property, and I was doing everything I could to make sure they didn’t know I was on it, and they forgot — and she called me out on it because I got so worked up when she was on my property! I was like, “Taylor, you can’t be a hypocrite. You just did the same thing!” And she’s like, “Well, you’re a hypocrite because you got mad about it.” So that is part of the game, I guess.
Wait until Corey Heim is distracted before you land on his properties in Monopoly. (Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
4. What do people get wrong about you?
I see a lot of people talk about how I whine a lot. I don’t feel like I whine. People talk about how I complain, but I feel like that’s pretty typical for anyone who is interviewed a lot? I don’t feel like I’m a whiner. I feel like I’m pretty chill, and if the race up front is good quality and we rub a little bit, that’s fine with me. But I feel like when people overstep and wreck you, that’s when I complain and people get worked up about that.
5. What kind of Uber passenger are you, and how much do you care about your Uber rating?
I don’t Uber a lot. I’m kind of a homebody. But I’m pretty adaptable. I just read the room a little bit. If the driver is more quiet, I like to keep it that way. I don’t really care about my Uber rating, but it’s 4.9 or something.
6. This one is a wild-card question I’m mixing up for each person. I know you grew up in the Atlanta suburbs and think you started racing quarter midgets when you were 5, and you some Legend car racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But I don’t really know about your background growing up beyond that. Can you fill in the blanks for me?
My dad was always a big NASCAR fan. He raced Legend cars a lot when I was growing up at Lanier (Raceway), and he actually raced against Chase Elliott and the Dillon brothers in the same class. He was low-budgeted; he works in the gambling industry and sold old monitors from slot machines to fund his racing when I was growing up and raced locally.
I had started to love NASCAR and watch it with him, and he surprised me with a go-kart for Christmas when I was 4 years old. I started racing locally in Cumming, Georgia, and at the Lanier quarter-midget track up the road. When I first started out, it was a very low-budget operation because it was more of a hobby for us. I didn’t like losing, like most people, and was skeptical whether I wanted to continue racing. Quite honestly, when I was 7 or 8 years old, I had one foot out the door. If it wasn’t for the friends and the people I had met and formed those relationships with, I probably would have quit racing. When you’re not doing as well as you want to be, it’s not very fun.
My dad’s business started doing better, started putting more money into the racing side of things and chipped away at it and eventually decided to go Late Model racing. Had some success there, met the right people, and my dad’s business was doing better, so he was able to throw more money at it and invest in the ARCA side of things. Ever since I’ve been in Trucks, I’ve made a career out of it from there.
When you didn’t have enough funding to run well, at what point did you know you were good enough to do this? Because if you’re not winning at that age, how do you know?
I did a lot of iRacing growing up, and I was always pretty good at that, and we had a decent amount of success later in my quarter-midget career and definitely in Late Models, too. My dad always told me he didn’t have enough money to fund ARCA racing, so it was always in the back of my mind like, “I’m just going to keep doing it until I can’t anymore.”
But that’s when his business started doing a lot better, and he was able to throw a little bit more money at it for me to get that ARCA opportunity. And then little by little, Toyota started to help us, and eventually it turned into what it is now. I just always enjoyed it just enough to want to stay in it, and I felt like the day I didn’t enjoy anymore, I would be done with it. But that day never came.
7. This is the 16th year I’ve been doing these 12 Questions interviews, and I’ve been going back to a previous question and re-using it. You seem like a very even-keeled guy from what I’ve seen, so I found this one from 2012: When is the last time you got nervous about something?
I get nervous all the time. I mean, I’m nervous right now for Cup practice (Heim ran the No. 67 car at Nashville Superspeedway last weekend). I have emotions, but they’re just more internal. I feel a fair amount of stress and nerves going into these races. I want to impress people and perform at the best of my ability.
Anyone who cares gets nervous about things. Like, if you have a big event where you have to speak to a lot of people, you’d get nervous too, if you care about it. So I feel like it’s pretty natural.
8. Other than one of your teammates, name a driver who you would be one of the first people to congratulate them in victory lane if they won a race.
Tanner Gray in the Trucks. He’s been a really good teammate to me. You said no teammates, but I was thinking on the 23XI side. So I’ll say Tanner for my Tricon side. I don’t really have a lot of close friends outside of my Toyota group, so it’s a tough one.
9. How much do you use AI technology, whether for your job or your daily life?
I’ve never used it, but a lot of the photos people generate are really funny, so I’ve wanted to give it a shot. But do they all cost money to use? I’d like to use it sometime.
I’ve seen people use it for paint schemes, and people (on social media) lose their marbles because it takes away (the human element), which makes sense. But I feel like that’s just adapting to the times, you know?
Tanner Gray and Corey Heim, Tricon Garage teammates in the NASCAR Truck Series. (Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
10. What is a time in your life that was really challenging, but you feel proud of the way that you responded to it?
The 2023 championship in the Trucks, just with Carson (Hocevar) and the whole mess there. (Heim was going to win the championship but was wrecked by Hocevar; Heim later retaliated by wrecking Hocevar and was penalized for it afterward.) It was just a big rollercoaster of emotions and the public perception. For the most part, I’ve been a really clean driver. I don’t really cause a lot of crap, but being under that microscope with 30 to go in a Truck (championship) race and everything happening the way it did, it put me in a bad light. I had to handle that because I pride myself on racing the way I want to be race, so seeing people come crashing down on me for retaliating was tough.
The good part of it was I had the whole offseason to just get over it. It wasn’t like I had to go racing next week with that mindset. But from a broad perspective, I feel like it was a warranted thing, but I had to just understand I was under a microscope, and it got blown out of proportion a little bit from my standpoint.
11. What needs to happen in NASCAR to take this sport to the next level of popularity?
First of all, every race would sell out if it was as big of a party as Talladega. No one is coming to watch 25 minutes of practice; you come to party and enjoy the race. Of course, there’s a fan group that enjoys the racing quality, but what are you going to do for the other three days you’re here camping out? People go for that more than anything. (More of a party scene) would help at pretty much every racetrack.
And then I feel like MLB has done a really good job with ballpark food. I’ve seen a lot of parks introduce new ballpark food. People travel just to go and try these new ballpark items. They’re crazy contraptions of food and stuff you don’t see on a normal day. That would be cool for certain tracks.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. The last one was with Justin Allgaier, so his question for you is: “It’s inevitable for you to be a Cup Series superstar. What has been the hardest part about your progression and what do you still need to work on to become the best all-around driver in whatever series you’re in on a given weekend?”
Just the little things I need to work on. My speed is there. My racecraft has gotten a lot better. The little things such as pit road and restarts are things I can put effort into it and continue to get better, and I can execute on it for one race — but after I stop making that a point to look at on a consistent basis, I start slacking on it again. So it’s like I need to learn how to somehow mentally let myself know (to do those things) every week.
The next interview I’m doing is with Daniel Suárez. Do you have a question I can ask him?
Aside from Trackhouse, he’s never been able to settle into a groove with one team. He was with the Xfinity team with Gibbs for one year, won the championship, went Cup racing probably prematurely (when Carl Edwards suddenly retired). Once he was getting in his groove (in Cup with Gibbs), he’s out the door going to Haas, and then once he was getting his groove there, he’s out the door with the next move. What’s it been like to have to readjust constantly every year versus being comfortable and finding his groove at Trackhouse?
(Top photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
