As the NASCAR Xfinity Series enjoys yet another weekend off before heading south of the border, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series took center stage as the companion series to the Cup Series on this Fast Saturday. The Truckers roared into the Irish Hills of Michigan International Speedway, one of the longer tracks the series goes to. In fact, this race marked the series monumental return after a four year absence. There were a number of storylines heading into today’s race. For starters, Corey Heim was looking to continue his lights-out, dominant season. Meanwhile, other drivers, such as Kaden Honeycutt, were looking to build on their quiet momentum. And, of course, we had a couple of trophy hunters dipping down to try and spoil things.
So, let’s break all of that down, shall we? Here are the three key takeaways from the DQS Solutions and Staffing 250 from Michigan International Speedway.
He will start 13th today. Last week's winner, @rajahcaruth_, checks in with @ReganSmith during the pace laps on FOX! pic.twitter.com/3En7uIKZPv
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 7, 2025
Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar dominated the first two stages of this race with Heim sweeping the stages. After an incident that saw the SAFER Barrier get punctured, the race was red-flagged. Following this momentary pause in the action, Heim and Hocevar (among other leaders) pitted with several other drivers staying out. Grant Enfinger took over the race lead.
From there, the race was on. Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar expertly used the draft to work their way through the field and engage in a six-truck breakaway battle for the lead. Things got squirely as some of the drivers started to use up their competitors. Ross Chastain and Carson Hocevar got together, resulting in Chastain wrecking but saving the truck from spinning out. We stayed green after an expert save on Chastain’s part. Layne Riggs also got into the wall, resulting in him cutting a tire down, triggering yet another caution.
A pile-up on the subsequent restart took out some heavy hitters, including Chastain and Corey Heim. Check out this massive carnage.
In NASCAR overtime, Corey LaJoie found himself in the lead with Daniel Hemric lining up behind him with significant damage. The green flag dropped, and LaJoie started to block Jake Garcia and a hard-charging Grant Enfinger. On the backstretch, Lawless Allan plowed into the wall. We stayed green. Corey LaJoie saw victory in sight. All he needed to do was come around and get the white flag. The next flag would end it. But before he could take the white, Hemric’s left front tire exploded. Hemric got into the wall hard, triggering yet another caution. We were forced to line it up again for Overtime 2.
LaJoie once again chose to restart on the outside with Grant Enfinger behind him. Jake Garcia, who was low on gas, restarted on the bottom. Hocevar was able to move up to Row 3 on the inside. The race went green again and Grant Enfinger got a jump on LaJoie. He cleared the driver of the 07 and the caution flew once more after Matt Mills got sideways and collected Jack Wood among others.
Rinse and repeat: we lined it up again. Enfinger, LaJoie, and Rhodes all took the outside, opening the bottom to Stewart Friesen. Enfinger and Friesen got great restarts while LaJoie and Rhodes hung back. Friesen was able to use the side draft to get by Enfinger. The driver of the 52 was then able to take the white flag and hold off the 9 of Enfinger to score the victory in a wild one at Michigan International Speedway.
From triumph last week at Nashville Superspeedway which saw sim racer-turned real-life racecar driver Rajah Caruth score his second Truck win and lock himself into the 2025 Playoffs, to issues in the opening laps this week. Rajah Caruth started today’s race in 13th. Not bad but not great, either. Still, the young driver of the number 71 HendrickCars.com Chevy for Spire Motorsports was very confident heading into this weekend after last week’s victory. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t able to carry that same kind of momentum into the start of today’s race.
Just in the first few laps of the race, Caruth radioed his pit crew, complaining that he believed that he had a right rear tire going down. As a response, he came down pit road for service and got two fresh Goodyear tires. Due to this unfortunate turn of events, Caruth found himself one lap down. Initially, it wasn’t that big of a deal. He was the only driver running one lap down and was banking on an early caution so that he could take advantage of the Free Pass. However, the stage ran green the whole way through. Leaders Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim quickly caught up with the back half of the field and started lapping trucks, meaning that Caruth was no longer in the Free Pass position and was trapped a lap down.
Again, banking on a quick caution, Caruth stayed out during the stage break to gain the lap back. But the caution never came. Caruth had to put for gas and once again went a lap down. It was clear that he was going to be working all race long to get that lap back.
Fortunately, during the stage break between the second and final stage, Caruth found himself in the Free Pass position and was able to race, once again, on the lead lap.
After getting his lap back, Caruth’s day ended prematurely. He got loose racing on the outside and backed it into the wall. He was credited with a 32nd-place finish.
From the drop of the green flag, Carson Hocevar rocketed out of his second-place starting position and snatched the lead away from polesitter Luke Fenhaus. Quickly on his heels, though, was Truck Series heavyweight Corey Heim. These two drivers have a history as, you may remember. During the 2023 Truck Championship finale, Hocevar straight up dumped Heim in Turn 1 in the closing laps, ending his championship bid. Seemingly, these two generational talents have put the past behind them. They’ve raced each other fairly clean since that altercation in Phoenix a couple of years ago and that was no different here today.
It was clear early on that Hocevar had one of the best trucks on the day. He led every lap except the last one in the opening stage with Corey Heim breathing down his neck. He also held the Xfinity Fastest Lap time for most of this race. However, on the last lap of the stage, Heim made his move. Through turns 3 and 4, Heim slingshot past Hocevar to win the stage. With this victory, he currently holds the record for the most Truck Series stage wins in series history.
Heim, with Hocevar not far behind, went on to sweep the stages.
On the Cup side of things, there’s always talk about the “fourth Hendrick car”. There’s a debate amongst NASCAR fans even as to whether that dishonor should go to Chase Elliott or Alex Bowman. A similar phenomenon can also be applied to the arguably top Chevy team in the Truck Series, Spire Motorsports. Clearly, the best truck in that stable this year has been the 7 truck. So far this year, Team 7 has two wins: one with Kyle Busch (Atlanta) and one with Carson Hocevar (Kansas). Even the 71 truck visited victory lane this year at Nashville with its full-time driver Rajah Caruth.
Now, while it could be argued that the 77 truck has run worst of the four entries so far this year, it should also be noted that Andres Perez is a rookie. There are growing pains built into that sort of situation. What I think is more interesting to look at in terms of the “Fourth Spire Truck” argument is the quality of drivers who’ve raced in the 07 truck this year with vastly different results than when they drove the 7. In 2025, the 07 truck has one win with Kyle Larson back at Homestead.
But Larson was by no means the dominant driver of that race. He was just able to capitalize on Corey Heim’s misfortunes, along with taking advantage of different race strategies. Outside of a couple of top 5 runs from Larson and Byron, that truck has been more mediocre than the other Spire entries. Even Kyle Busch, one of the greatest truck drivers to ever live, struggles to get top 15 finishes in the entry. Larson, Byron, McDowell, and Haley haven’t fared much better.
Whatever the issue is, it’s clear that the 07 truck is far off the pace of its teammates. It will be interesting to see what Corey LaJoie can do with that truck as he competes in 9 of the final 10 races of the season in the entry.
That does it for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Michigan International Speedway! What did you make of this crazy race, Daily Downforce readers? Let us know what you think! And be sure to tune back in here tomorrow as the Cup Series takes on this 2-mile intermediate speedway!
