An afternoon of flawless restarts and sheer dominance handed Corey Heim the winning finish in Saturday’s XPEL 225 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the famed Circuit of The Americas road course in Austin, Texas.

Heim’s No. 11 led a race-high 31 of 46 laps, and he was able to masterfully control every restart to pull away and win going away. He crossed the line 1.625 seconds clear of his teammate Taylor Gray for his first victory of the 2024 season and sixth career Truck Series win.

Ty Majeski finished third, followed by standout rookie Connor Zilisch in fourth for his best career finish, and NASCAR Cup Series regular Ross Chastain rounding out the top five.

“I just prepared so hard for this race,” said Heim. “I struggled here last year, so to put together a solid performance like this is really special and shows how good these trucks are.”

Heim has opened the season with incredible consistency, finishing sixth or better in all five races so far. “Great consistency was the name of the game for us making the championship four last year. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but I think we can prove we’re champions this season.”

While Heim dominated out front, there was plenty of intense action behind him. There were 14 lead changes among eight drivers, though no one other than the winner led double-digit laps.

Sportscar veteran Jack Hawksworth, making his Truck Series debut, ran in the top five all day and even led a lap before finishing an impressive sixth.

The performance of the day, however, may have come from 17-year-old Connor Zilisch. After starting on the pole in his NASCAR national series debut, Zilisch made an overly aggressive restart at the initial green flag, quickly falling back. But he gathered himself under the guidance of veteran crew chief Brian Pattie, impressively clawing his way back into the top five before a late speeding penalty tempered his finish slightly.

“I can’t be too disappointed with fourth in my first truck race,” said Zilisch. “This Spire team never gave up on me and got me back in contention late. We’ll build on this moving forward.”

Nick Sanchez won Stage 1, while Heim claimed the Stage 2 victory in his utterly commanding day at the iconic 3.41-mile COTA circuit.