Corey Heim triggers huge wreck at Kansas, takes out Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley

Caution after caution. This race is starting to get intense, and drivers like Bubba Wallace are paying the price for others’ mistakes. Corey Heim made contact with Justin Haley, and from there, the chaos ensued. First NASCAR Cup Series race of the year for Heim and he’s made a big mistake.

Justin Haley, Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, Michael McDowell, and Corey Heim were all involved in this wreck officially. Rookie mistake or just a consequence of restarts at Kansas? Probably a rookie mistake.

Heim inadvertently wrecking Wallace out of this race is a big deal. That team did not have a great points day and will now have to salvage something out of the final 50 laps of this race. If that’s possible at all.

Big wreck. This race could change in an instant.

Cautions. Breed. Cautions. pic.twitter.com/7dKGHXTALh

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 11, 2025

Corey Heim is learning. When he rewatches the race in the next few days, he will see what he did wrong. He shouldn’t have put himself in that situation. It just led to trouble. Heim, a 23XI Racing development driver, is incredibly talented. He will learn and be better after this.

That is little consolation for his 23XI teammate, Bubba Wallace. Without a win this season so far, Wallace needs all the points he can get. Today, he didn’t have the speed that many expected him to have at the track where he last won a Cup race.

Today has been all about Kyle Larson. There have been a few others here and there, like Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell, who have stuck their nose up in the front. But no one has been on the same level as the No. 5 car this evening.

Corey Heim still learning in Cup Series

As a development driver, Corey Heim is learning. The Cup Series is a new beast entirely. The good news is that Heim avoided wrecking himself. That’s not an underhanded compliment, I genuinely mean that. He made it to the end of the race and it paid off.

While Heim will have to talk to Bubba Wallace about his mistake, and possibly others, he had a good finish. In fact, in four starts, P13 today at Kansas is his career-best in the Cup Series. He was P22 at this race a year ago, filling in for Erik Jones at Legacy Motor Club.

Heim has talent. He knows how to learn a race track and feel out his car over the course of an entire race, getting better with each lap. But in a car he is largely unfamiliar with, racing against drivers he is unfamiliar with, he is going to mess up. Today was just an example.

I promise you, if Corey Heim is full-time in the Cup Series soon, it won’t be long before he’s the new Carson Hocevar. Everyone will blame him for any wreck or incident he is even within a car length of. A bright future ahead of Heim.