After Tricon Garage's Corey Heim won his second consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and Front Row Motorsports' Chandler Smith was disqualified from his fourth place finish at Rockingham Speedway, Heim took the lead of the standings.
Heim is tied with teammate Kaden Honeycutt, who replaced the reigning series champion as the full-time driver of the No. 11 Toyota this year, atop the standings, but Heim owns the tiebreaker since he has won twice. His first win of the season came at Darlington Raceway.
And he owns that points lead despite having run just three races, compared to Honeycutt's five starts.
But because Heim is not a full-time driver, he is not eligible for a postseason spot, despite having started the year with points eligibility in the Truck Series.
Under the previous "win and in" format, this made sense; NASCAR didn't want drivers to show up, win a race, and be locked into the playoffs without actually having to run any other races.
But with the new format based on points and points alone, Heim's playoff ineligibility has been the subject of controversy as he finds himself on a two-race win streak.
Nobody is missing races just to miss races; there is no "load management" in NASCAR like there is in the NBA. Heim simply doesn't have a full-time ride, and quite frankly, if he can be one of the top 10 drivers on points by the end of the 18-race regular season without running every race, more power to him.
NASCAR doesn't see it that way, however, not even five years removed from keeping Grant Enfinger out of the playoffs simply because he missed one race.
However, Heim is not the only full-time driver who is ineligible to qualify for the playoffs.
He's not even the only one named Corey.
Corey LaJoie opened up the season driving for Henderson Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway, and he ran the season's fourth race at Darlington in Kaulig Racing's "free agent" truck before being named the full-time replacement for Daniel Dye in the No. 10 Ram. Dye and Kaulig Racing parted ways after he was reinstated by NASCAR following his suspension.
LaJoie did not initially declare for Truck Series points, so he was not credited with any points from Daytona or Darlington. But he opened up his full-time stint with a seventh place finish at Rockingham, giving him 30 points even without earning any stage points, and he finds himself 83 points below the playoff cut line with 13 races remaining on the regular season schedule.
If he were to average 30 points per race, that would put him at 420. McAnally-Hilgemann Racing's Tyler Ankrum currently occupies the 10th and final playoff spot, and he has averaged 22.6 points per race. Over 18 races, that comes out to just under 407.
In nine Truck Series starts a year ago with Spire Motorsports, LaJoie recorded seven top nine finishes and averaged 31.3 points per start.
Suffice it to say that the Cup Series veteran would absolutely be a Truck Series playoff contender if actually given the opportunity to qualify.
Kaulig Racing are reportedly still trying to ensure LaJoie receives a waiver, but there is no guarantee. However, for all intents and purposes, there is zero logic supporting the argument that he shouldn't be granted one, not only based on historical precedent, but based on the fact that he is at an inherent disadvantage to begin with, having been forced to restart with zero points even after running two of the season's first four races as a part-time driver.
But as we all know, when it comes to NASCAR, logic and reason don't always win out.