It’s trial by fire for Corey Heim this weekend at Dover Motor Speedway.
His first time ever climbing behind the wheel of a NextGen car in the NASCAR Cup Series came right before practice as a substitute driver for the injured Erik Jones in the Legacy Motor Club No. 43 Toyota Camry.
But he isn’t totally unprepared as the 21-year-old is the designated reserve driver for both Legacy and 23XI Racing this season. That means he has spent all spring turning laps in the simulator each week and has acclimated himself to the platform as well as anyone can without actually having driven one.
“I would be lying to you if I wasn’t a little nervous about it, because I’ve never sat in one of these cars before, but my job is to do the best I can for this 43 group until Erik comes back,” Heim said.
It helps that Jones, who is week-to-week with a lower back fracture, is also on-site at the Monster Mile, to assist in every way possible. Heim races full-time in the Truck Series for Tricon Garage and part-time in the Xfinity Series for Sam Hunt Racing.
He is a heralded prospect for Toyota Racing Development, and Jones can relate to everything Heim is going through as he made his Cup Series debut under similar circumstances at a similar place in his career.
The only difference was that Cup cars back then were very similar to the Xfinity Series platform. Jones took over mid-race for Denny Hamlin in the spring race at Bristol in 2015 and made his full-race debut a few weeks later at Kansas when Kyle Busch needed a substitute.
“I think I would say making your Cup debut now is somewhat more challenging than when I did it, less practice, completely different car,” Jones said. “There are a lot of things that I would say is tougher.
“When I was getting to make my first Cup start, we will take out when I jumped in Bristol for Denny (Hamlin) – that was kind of last minute – but when I got in for Kyle (Busch) in Kansas – I had a lot of time to prepare and get ready, and then two or three practice throughout the weekend.
“It is challenging now.”
Jones has told Heim to temper his expectations. Jones said he tried to go out and win the race at Kansas that year and crashed himself in the process.
“I talked to him a little bit about that, and the rest has been just about the car and what the differences are there and trying to prepare going from Trucks and Xfinity to this car and what it is going to be like,” he added.
Heim said he’s grateful for any advice and he also believes the longer length of a Cup Series race will also help him acclimate, hoping to be comfortable enough to really race confidently by the final stage, which is roughly the second half.
All told, it’s just been a whirlwind week and a lot for Heim to process in a short amount of time.
“Mentally, I’ve not been able to digest this quite yet,” Heim said. “It is definitely kind of a last second and big opportunity for me under unfortunate circumstances. It is definitely cool for me to be able to make my debut with the 43 group.
“I think they’ve been going the right direction and got a cool paint scheme on the car. I get to be teammates with Jimmie (Johnson) and John Hunter (Nemechek) – to do that is super cool, but in the moment, I’m so focused on practice and qualifying right now, I’ve not really been able to focus on that. I think when I reflect on it – it will be a really cool moment for me, but right now, I’m just focused on the present.”