NASCAR Cup Series silly season has already begun, and it didn't even wait for the calendar to flip to June, or for the second half of the 2026 regular season to begin.
On Saturday, 23XI Racing confirmed the news that many had actually hoped would come in 2025 for the 2026 season, or perhaps even in 2024 for the 2025 season.
Development driver Corey Heim, who won the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series championship with Tricon Garage but was left without a full-time ride altogether in 2026, is set to join Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace in 23XI Racing's Cup Series driver lineup for 2027.
Corey Heim in, Riley Herbst out for 2027
Heim is set to replace Riley Herbst behind the wheel of the No. 35 Toyota next year. Herbst took over the No. 35 entry in 2025 when the team added a third chartered car, alongside Reddick's No. 45 Toyota and Wallace's No. 23 Toyota.
While Herbst has taken a step forward this year compared to 2025, part of that can be attributed to the fact that his 2025 season was simply not up to the team's standard.
He finished 35th of 36 full-time drivers in the point standings, and his top finish of 14th place was the worst top finish among all 36 drivers. This year, he has recorded three top 14 finishes, including a top finish of eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, and he sits 27th in points.
Still, he hasn't been close to Reddick, who leads the standings with a series-best five wins, or 2025 Brickyard 400 winner Wallace, who still sits 15th despite a recent rough stretch.
Given Herbst's sponsorship, which is facilitated through his family's Terrible Herbst chain of gas stations, it would not be surprising to see him remain in the series in 2027. The most obvious landing spot would be Legacy Motor Club, another Toyota team and a team planning to expand from two cars to three themselves.
As for Heim, he was 23XI Racing's top finisher in two of his four starts in a fourth entry for the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team a year ago, and that included a drive from the back to sixth in a race at Bristol Motor Speedway that featured heavy tire degradation.
This year, Heim is 13th in the Cup Series in laps led, despite having only run five of the season's first 14 races.
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