Tyler Reddick cut a despondent look after losing to Corey Heim on Sunday’s Anduril 250 at Naval Base Coronado. The season leader fell off the top-5 after a flat tyre derailed his race in the final laps.
Reddick and Heim had a tight battle for the lead with three laps to go. Driving the No.67 Toyota, Heim initially edged ahead into Turn 5, but Reddick crossed over and launched a late move to the inside.
The dive bomb ended in contact, forcing Heim to go wide and into the walls. However, Reddick pumped the brakes and allowed his part-time teammate to go through uncontested. Reflecting upon the fight, Reddick had this to say (via X/NASCAR),
“It definitely stings. But, yeah, first and foremost, congratulations to Corey. I tried to battle back and overdid it. I really did. I ran him straight in the wall and that wasn’t right, so I wasn’t going to pass it for the win that way. That’s for sure, especially teammate. And yeah, it’s real shame.”
“I don’t know if I cut the tire. You know, during before after, I’m not really sure, but really needed a good points day and had another really bad one. So we’ll try and scrape together and have a decent finish in Sonoma.”
Tyler Reddick already began on the back foot after crashing out in qualifying and requiring a splitter change. NASCAR relegated him to the tail end of the 39-car field for the unapproved change.
He then spun out on Sunday, but continued without inducing the caution. He limped to a 25th-place finish after blowing his tyre.
Corey Heim, meanwhile, began outside the top-10 and took out Carson Hocevar en route to his victory.
Corey Heim admits to a lucky break after race favourites wrecked out
Starting in pole, Shane van Gisbergen was heavily touted to win San Diego’s inaugural race. The New Zealander, however, got collected in a restart mishap between teammate Connor Zilisch and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill.
All three drivers dropped out of contention, leaving the race win up for grabs. Finishing outside the top-10 in both stages, Corey Heim rallied to the front in the final 12 laps.
An ecstatic Heim delivered a rather honest assessment of his maiden Cup win.
“I hope I don’t wake up from this dream. I don’t know. This is insane,” said Heim via News JOurnal Online, “Caught a couple breaks with some of the good guys wrecking out. But they don’t ask how, just how many.”
San Diego marks Corey Heim’s 13th career Cup start. The 23-year-old finished over ten seconds ahead of runner-up finisher and 23XI teammate, Bubba Wallace.
Team owner Denny Hamlin chopped into Tyler Reddick’s points lead with a 23-point haul. He now stands just eight points adrift of Reddick.
Read More:
Austin Hill Takes Blame for Wrecking Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch Out of Anduril 250
