Corey Heim is considered one of the top NASCAR prospects not currently competing in the Cup Series, and for good reason. He has won 16 races in the Truck Series, five this year alone, and is the runaway points leader and clear championship favorite in his third full season with Toyota's Tricon Garage.
Heim, a development driver for 23XI Racing, made his first Cup Series start of the year at Kansas Speedway back in May, and he impressively beat out all three of the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team's full-time drivers: Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, and Riley Herbst.
Unfortunately for him, things did not go nearly as well as Nashville Superspeedway in June, as a mistake led to a wreck which knocked him out of the race.
Things got even worse at Chicago.
For the first time since November 2018 at Texas Motor Speedway, there were more cars on a non-Daytona 500 Cup Series entry list than there were spots in the race. With Heim in a non-chartered (open) No. 67 Toyota, he was one of five drivers battling for four open spots in the 40-car field.
Most fans had the DNQ battle coming down to Josh Bilicki and Katherine Legge, given the fact that they were competing for part-time teams in Garage 66 and Live Fast Motorsports, respectively, while Heim was thought to be relatively safe, alongside the likes of Will Brown at Kaulig Racing and Austin Hill at Richard Childress Racing.
With 23XI Racing, Kaulig Racing, and Richard Childress Racing all fielding multiple full-time entries, they should not have had much problem getting into the race on speed.
But in perhaps the most humbling moment of his young career, Heim made contact with the wall in qualifying and damaged the car to the point where his speed was the worst among the four open entries in the first group, and it was clearly beatable in the second.
In group two, Legge was the only driver of an open car, and she managed to beat Heim's time, making Heim the first driver to fail to qualify for a Cup race other than Daytona 500 since Timmy Hill failed to qualify at Texas with MBM Motorsports (the team now known as Garage 66) nearly seven years ago.
Heim and the No. 67 Toyota are not on the entry list for this Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
In fact, Heim does not currently have any more starts planned for the remainder of the 2025 season, and though he had been rumored to replace Riley Herbst behind the wheel of the No. 35 Toyota at 23XI Racing next year, a Cup Series promotion, at least to 23XI Racing, does not yet appear to be on the horizon.
Of the five drivers of open cars in Chicago, Legge is the only one set to return at Sonoma. With the No. 78 Chevrolet being the only open car on the entry list, since no others were added, she is locked into the race after recording a career-high 19th place finish on Sunday in the Windy City.
TNT Sports is set to provide live coverage of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Sonoma Raceway starting at 3:30 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 13.