Corey Heim won the Brickyard 400 on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, holding off Christopher Bell by 0.287 seconds after 160 laps. The official NASCAR points report lists his Cup Series total at zero.
The zero is intentional. Heim is the defending Craftsman Truck Series champion and is declared for driver points in that series. His Cup starts come on a 12-race schedule 23XI Racing announced in February for its development driver, and drivers who declare in another national series cannot score Cup points. He gets the win. He does not get the points.
Both Cup victories of Heim's career have come this season, in eight starts, the first at the first Cup race ever run at Naval Base Coronado in June. The win did pay the No. 67 Field & Stream Toyota, which sits on 228 owner points, a standing that belongs to the car and the team rather than the driver.
Denny Hamlin finished fifth. He is also a co-owner of 23XI Racing. When the team announced Heim's schedule on February 6, Hamlin said in the release that "we know the future is really bright for Corey, and we're working with him to ensure that he is as prepared as possible when his time comes to race full time." On Sunday, the driver being prepared finished four positions ahead of the co-owner preparing him.
Heim started seventh and led 58 laps, more than anyone, in four separate stints. The last of them was the final 35. Ty Gibbs led 46. Carson Hocevar led the first 31 from the pole, having locked out the front row in Saturday qualifying with Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez. Hamlin led 14. The lead changed 15 times among 11 drivers, and the race ran 3 hours, 8 minutes, 21 seconds at an average speed of 127.422 mph.
Kyle Larson crashed in Turn 3 on Lap 43 and was credited with 39th, last among the 39 starters. Daniel Dye crashed in the same corner on Lap 93, bringing out a caution that doubled as the end of the second stage. Then, on Lap 121, nine cars wrecked in Turn 3: Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Riley Herbst, Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Casey Mears and Connor Zilisch. Hill, Zilisch, Mears and Herbst did not return. Five cautions covered 27 laps, and the penalty report ran to 16 infractions, most of them for cars pitting before pit road was open during the late yellows.
Hamlin left Indianapolis with the points lead at 886, an 84-point margin over Tyler Reddick. Blaney is third at 766, Gibbs fourth at 751. Hocevar, ninth on Sunday, left fifth at 638, three points ahead of Chase Elliott.
It was the third national-series race at Indianapolis in three days, after Layne Riggs led 198 of 200 laps in the Trucks on Friday and Carson Kvapil took his first career win on Saturday.
The Cup Series returns at Iowa Speedway on August 9. Four races remain on Heim's 2026 Cup schedule: Daytona on August 29, Darlington on September 6, Charlotte on October 11 and Homestead on November 8. He has not scored a Cup point in any of the eight he has run.