With Corey Heim in the Wings, Who’s the Odd Man Out at 23XI?
What’s Happening? Sunday 23XI officially confirmed that Truck Series standout Corey Heim is the team’s first developmental prospect. However, one major…
During the latest episode of the Dale Jr Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr gave his take on whether or not 23XI Racing should move on from rookie Riley Herbst after this season. With the NASCAR legend saying that, “I wouldn’t be surprised” if 23XI’s top prospect takes over the No. 35 in 2026.
During a discussion about Corey Heim and Layne Riggs’s on-track beef from this past weekend at North Wilkesboro, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his Dale Jr Download co-hosts discussed Heim’s future as the top prospect for Toyota’s 23XI Racing.
Though he has dominated the Craftsman Truck Series the past two seasons and is the hands-down best Toyota Prospect, Heim has yet to find a full-time ride in the NASCAR Xfinity or Cup Series. This is also in spite of the high praise that Heim often receives from those in the industry.
Heim even looked landlocked to start the season with no clear route to the next level. His future remained unclear until Feb. 23, when Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing announced they had signed the 22-year-old to a developmental deal.
Earnhardt, like most in the industry and the grandstands, feels that Heim is ready for an ascension to the Cup Series. The former driver and Xfinity Series team owner agrees that Heim’s current spot in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is merely to get him reps behind the wheel.
“The opinion, I think, in the Toyota camp is very, very high on him [Heim] and that this truck thing’s just a placeholder, a stopgap opportunity, for him to gain knowledge, race, [and] gain racecraft,” Earnhardt said.
Despite Heim’s skill throughout the start of his dominant Craftsman Truck Series season, fans have worried that a logjam at the Cup Series level could keep Heim in NASCAR’s lowest National Series in 2026.
However, one major issue facing Heim is Riley Herbst, driver of 23XI’s new No. 35 entry and a Rookie of the Year candidate. Since 23XI confirmed the signing of Heim, fans have often debated whether Herbst will, or even should, return to the car next season.
While most fans have their opinion on this debate, which mostly comes down to a conversation about sponsorship, Earnhardt was quick to give his take on Herbst’s long-term future with the fast-charging Heim in the wings at 23XI. With the Hall of Famer saying, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s [Heim] in Riley’s car next year.”
What’s Happening? Sunday 23XI officially confirmed that Truck Series standout Corey Heim is the team’s first developmental prospect. However, one major…
After many years of floating around in NASCAR’s developmental levels, Riley Herbst finally scored his first full-time Cup Series ride in 2025. Though he is a winner at the Xfinity Series level, his sponsorship from Monster Energy and his family’s Terrible Herbst gas stations may have factored into his new gig.
While Herbst had a decent run in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, his rookie year in the NASCAR Cup Series has not started well.
Most fans feel the No. 35 is the weak link at 23XI, as the team’s long-term drivers, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, are performing at their usual rates. Wallace even signed a multi-year renewal last fall. In comparison to his veteran teammates, Herbst currently sits 30th in points, only better than four other full-time drivers.
When you compare that to Heim, who is having yet another stellar season in the Truck Series, it may look like an easy decision for 23XI in the coming year. However, sponsorship will always factor into a team’s roster decisions.
To further complicate the matter, there is no indication of just how long Herbst is under contract. However, sometimes a “long-term deal,” such as Zane Smith and Trackhouse Racing in 2024, does not guarantee a driver’s future. If 23XI makes the bold decision to move on from Herbst, it wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. However, the season is still young, and both drivers still have a lot to prove.
What’s Happening? Like any other sport, Free Agency is a key part of NASCAR. However, driver-free agency is not covered like…
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Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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