Corey Heim, Joey Logano Claim Wins in St. Louis, Allmendinger Wins at Portland

This past weekend was a weekend of many firsts that included the NASCAR Xfinity Series making their first trip to Portland International Raceway and the NASCAR Cup Series making their way to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in St. Louis.

To start things off, we go to Friday afternoon at WWT Raceway for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Corey Heim earned his second career truck win and his second win of the season, after starting from the pole in his No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota. Heim led the first 18 laps of the race and didn’t lead again until the first lap of NASCAR Overtime. He also collected a $50,000 check for the first race of the Triple Truck Challenge.

“I can’t believe I got the bottom right there, that’s unbelievable,” said Heim in his post-race interview. “A great push from my teammate Chandler Smith right there…”

Christian Eckes finished second to Heim, and Chandler Smith, Heim’s teammate, finished third. Stewart Friesen came home in fourth and Johnny Sauter rounded out the top five in the No. 13 for Thorsport. On the final lap, Carson Hocevar went for a spin in turn two and was slammed on the driver’s side by the No. 5 of Tyler Hill. Hocevar was helped to the ambulance on a stretcher but gave a thumbs-up signal to the crowd after exiting his truck. NASCAR officials said Hocevar was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

Hocevar left a statement on his Twitter later stating, “I want to thank all the fans for reaching out since the accident – definitely feeling the love! I know you’re all eager for an update but I’m waiting on the specialist’s results on my ankle before sharing. I’m eager to get back behind the wheel and will update you soon when I know more.”

The Truck Series heads next to Sonoma Raceway for the DoorDash 250 on June 11th at 7:30 pm EST.

As for the Xfinity Series, it was a brand new venue for the series as they arrived in Portland on a wet Saturday afternoon. After starting from the rear for unapproved adjustments, AJ Allmendinger passed a ton of cars to make his way into victory lane.

“It might be one of the craziest wins I’ve ever had,” Allmendinger told FS1 after the race. “Most mistakes to ever win a race for sure.”

This race marked Allmendinger’s 12^th career win in the Xfinity Series and his eighth on a road course. This also comes 16 years after he won a ChampCar race (formerly known as CART) at this same track. Allmendinger also flew over to St. Louis to compete in the Cup Series race at WWT Raceway at Gateway the next day.

Myatt Snider finished second for Jordan Anderson Racing, Austin Hill finished third, with Jr Motorsports teammates Josh Berry and Justin Allgaier rounding out the top five. On a restart with four to go, AJ Allmendinger took the lead from Myatt Snider and never looked back.

“Myatt was doing an amazing job,” Allmendinger told FS1. “He was really good in the wet. I got under him, we touched there. In these conditions, I knew if I could get to the lead I could dictate it. I was fighting hard.”

The Xfinity Series will be off for the next couple of weekends, then head to Nashville Superspeedway on June 25^th at 3:30 pm EST. This will be the first Xfinity race broadcasted on the USA Network.

Now onto the main event, the Cup Series’ first trip to St. Louis at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. I was also in attendance for the event with my father, as history was made in front of a sold-out crowd at the track. Chase Briscoe won the pole for the event and led early on until suffering a flat tire, which eventually led him to finish 24th. In the end, it came down to Kyle Busch vs Joey Logano for the win at Gateway. On the final restart, which was an overtime restart, Kyle Busch lined up with his brother Kurt behind him on the outside and Joey Logano with his teammate Ryan Blaney behind him. Logano was able to slide in front of Busch going into turn one, Busch then cut down inside Logano as they battled side-by-side down the backstretch. Busch wasn’t able to hold on and Joey Logano was the one who grabbed the first checkered flag in St. Louis.

“It doesn’t get much better than that, racing for the lead with Kyle who’s one of the best was a lot of fun, crossing each other back and forth, I knew it was coming so I did it back to him,” Logano said in his post-race interview.

“I’m really out of breath but what a great car though, I really messed up in qualifying and Paul [Wolfe, crew chief] made a great call putting two tires on, and Blaney did a great job with the push going into [Turn] 1.”

Throughout the course of the race, there was also high tension between two drivers. Those being the Coke 600 winner Denny Hamlin, and the rising star Ross Chastain.

Chastain drove into the back of Denny Hamlin, which sent Hamlin into the wall with heavy damage. Hamlin let Chastain know many times in the race that he wasn’t happy with him. Watching from the stands in turn one, the crowd was going wild when Hamlin brake checked Chastain at one point in the 300-mile race. Chastain also had a run-in with Chase Elliott not too long after, as he explained that he owed half the field an apology.

“I owe half the field an apology,” Chastain told FOX Sports. “And words aren’t going to fix it, so I’ll have to pay for it on the track and almost did today. And I deserve everything that they do. I just can’t believe that I continue to make the same mistakes and overdrive the corners and drive into guys.

“I had time under caution to get reset, and we go green and I drive into somebody. That’s terrible.”

It did not stop there, later Denny Hamlin and Justin Marks took shots at each other on Twitter later that night. Marks talked to NBC Sports after the race and defended his driver.

“This is a very, very competitive sport and you fight for every single inch,” Marks, the owner of Trackhouse Racing, told NBC Sports. “The thing is that he’s a newcomer in the top five and the established top-five guys don’t like there’s a newcomer there. I’m super, super proud of him. 

“He’s very aggressive. That’s what is required in winning races and ultimately it’s going to get him to where he’s going to be a NASCAR champion, his aggression matched with his talent.”

The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, June 12th at 4:00 pm EST. This will be the last race on FOX for the season, as broadcasting will switch over to NBC/USA for Nashville.

My Experience/Thoughts:

I was very impressed with how far Curtis Francois has taken the track since buying it and bringing back racing in 2014. He had the ambition to bring the Cup Series to the St. Louis area and it worked out great. The crowd, facilities, and traffic all turned out great, and as someone who has been to St. Louis many times over the years, since I have a lot of family on my father’s side, I knew there would be a sold-out crowd. I consider St. Louis a great sports market with the history and success of the MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals, the support of the 2019 Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues, and even when the NFL Rams and Cardinals played there. I enjoyed every moment of being at the track and I thought the racing was really good too. I saw a lot of side-by-side racing and everyone was racing hard from the drop of the green flag to the checkered flag. It’s safe to say this track will be on the schedule not only next year but for years to come. It’s great to see NASCAR go to all of these new venues like Nashville, COTA, Road America, and Gateway. Plus, I got to spend time with my father again at the track, which is always good. If you didn’t get to go to Gateway this year, I definitely recommend you go in 2023. Well done St. Louis, well done WWT Raceway.