Corey Heim scored his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Naval Base Coronado, beating Bubba Wallace by 10.365 seconds after a chaotic inaugural Anduril 250.
CORONADO, Calif. - Corey Heim did not just steal a strange one on a brand-new course. He survived the Anduril 250 long enough for the race to come back to him, then made NASCAR's first Cup Series visit to Naval Base Coronado look like it belonged on his resume all along.
Heim started 13th, led only three laps and still won by 10.365 seconds, a margin that undersold how tense the race felt before the final run finally opened up. The No. 67 Toyota had been the best value play on the board all week. By Sunday night, it was the winning car in one of the least predictable Cup races of the season.
The early story pointed somewhere else. Shane van Gisbergen started from the pole and looked exactly like the driver everyone expected to control a new street course. Ryan Blaney won Stage 1. Ryan Preece won Stage 2. Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher both spent time in the lead. The race kept changing hands because San Diego kept asking different questions: who could brake deep without overshooting Turn 1, who could keep tires and brakes alive, and who could avoid the oil and debris cautions that reset the board.
The biggest reset came on Lap 33, when a multi-car Turn 1 incident involving the Nos. 7, 12, 33, 35, 42, 54, 71, 88 and 97 brought out a red flag. That did not decide the race by itself, but it gave the afternoon its shape. Track position mattered, but it was never stable. Strategy mattered, but only until the next yellow. The race had 20 lead changes among 13 drivers and seven cautions in 75 laps.
Heim was the one still pointed forward when the race finally stopped tearing itself apart. Bubba Wallace finished second, giving 23XI Racing a one-two finish. Larson came home third, Zane Smith fourth and AJ Allmendinger fifth. Behind them, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain, Riley Herbst, Blaney and Michael McDowell completed a top 10 that looked more like a street-course survival list than a normal Cup rundown.
Van Gisbergen's finish will be the one that sticks for a lot of fantasy players. He led 11 laps from the pole and had the right profile for the track, but a fuel-pump problem left him 32nd. Tyler Reddick, another heavy road-course play, finished 31st after oil-pressure trouble. William Byron ended up 27th after the Turn 1 accident. San Diego did not care how good the projection looked if the car could not make the final run.
Final Results
| Pos | Driver | Start | Led | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #67 Corey Heim | 13 | 3 | Running |
| 2 | #23 Bubba Wallace | 12 | 2 | Running |
| 3 | #5 Kyle Larson | 14 | 11 | Running |
| 4 | #38 Zane Smith | 4 | 3 | Running |
| 5 | #16 AJ Allmendinger | 15 | 0 | Running |
| 6 | #17 Chris Buescher | 16 | 7 | Running |
| 7 | #1 Ross Chastain | 23 | 0 | Running |
| 8 | #35 Riley Herbst | 24 | 3 | Running |
| 9 | #12 Ryan Blaney | 3 | 12 | Running |
| 10 | #71 Michael McDowell | 9 | 0 | Running |
Key Takeaways
Heim's First Cup Win Was Earned Late
Heim did not pile up stage points or dominate the lead column. That is what made the win feel more impressive. He kept himself in the race while faster-looking cars hit trouble, then took command when the final sequence demanded clean laps. For a part-time Cup entry, winning a new street race against the full field is not a cute underdog note. It is a statement.
23XI Got the Whole Result
Heim winning and Wallace finishing second made this a massive organization day. Wallace started 12th, led two laps and matched Heim's patience through the race's messiest segments. On a course where clean air, braking zones and restart positioning were all unstable, getting both cars through to first and second was the best possible version of the strategy.
SVG Had the Race Profile, Not the Finish
Van Gisbergen had the pole, led 11 laps and looked like the obvious control car early. The fuel-pump issue turned that into a 32nd-place finish and a painful fantasy miss. The box score will show the failure, but the race still confirmed why he was so heavily played: the speed was there before the reliability disappeared.
Stage Points Changed the Fantasy Board
Allmendinger finished fifth but topped the FantasyJolt scoring sheet with 51 points because he scored in both stages. Blaney finished ninth and Preece 11th, yet both beat the race winner in raw FantasyJolt points because Stage 1 and Stage 2 mattered. Heim was the better story, but Allmendinger, Blaney and Preece were just as important for lineups.
Fantasy Recap
Big winners: Allmendinger scored 51 FantasyJolt points from a $12 salary with a fifth-place finish and points in both stages. Blaney scored 50.2 after winning Stage 1 and leading 12 laps. Preece scored 49.5 with the Stage 2 win. Larson added 49.1 points from third, and Heim's 45.3 points on an $8 salary made the race winner the cleanest mid-tier hit.
Best salary values: Riley Herbst was the slate's best cap play, scoring 43.3 points on a $5 salary after starting 24th and finishing eighth. Heim was next at $8 with the win. Bubba Wallace also smashed value at $7 with a runner-up finish, while Zane Smith turned a $7 salary into 39.3 points by finishing fourth.
Disappointments: Van Gisbergen and Reddick were the painful premium misses. SVG had pole speed before the fuel pump failure. Reddick led five laps but fell out with oil pressure. Byron's accident finish and Chase Briscoe's 23rd-place result also left expensive lineups short.
Looking Ahead
The Cup Series stays in California next week at Sonoma, which suddenly feels like a very different road-course test. San Diego rewarded survival on a first-time street layout. Sonoma will still give the road-course specialists room to work, but it should put more emphasis on long-run rhythm and tire management than pure chaos control.
By the Numbers
- Race distance: 75 of 75 scheduled laps
- Cautions: 7 for 11 laps
- Lead changes: 20 among 13 drivers
- Average speed: 70.561 mph
- Margin of victory: 10.365 seconds
- Race time: 3:36:50
- Stage winners: Stage 1: Ryan Blaney | Stage 2: Ryan Preece