"Two wildly different things": Denny Hamlin lays down his expectations for 23XI Racing's Corey Heim

Denny Hamlin recently shared his thoughts on Corey Heim after his Truck Series win at Texas last weekend. Heim, a development driver for Denny Hamlin-owned 23XI Racing, recorded his third win of the season.

Ahead of his first Cup start of the season at Kansas behind the wheel of the #67 Toyota Camry, his boss, Hamlin, spoke about what he's looking forward to with Heim.

Speaking on Actions Detrimental, Hamlin mentioned how seeing Heim at Kansas would be exciting, along with his other planned appearances in 2025. Hamlin added about what he expects to see out of his development driver in the limited starts he has with 23XI Racing.

Hamlin claimed he's expecting 'progression' from Heim, elaborating [9:30]:

"There's not a finishing spot in which you're, 'Hey, I'll be happy if they finish whatever,' because I've learned after I watched the race this weekend, where you run and where you finish are two wildly different things."

He gave the example of Trackhouse Racing, where the team finished well in Texas, but in reality, as Ross Chastain pointed out, they have a lot of work to do. This is why Denny Hamlin believed that as a driver, one has to carry their car sometimes, get good restarts, and fight for positions that they wouldn't normally fight for.

"All those things and next thing you know you have 15 cars crash and you just keep making your way up towards the front and then you got a shot to win at the end and you look at a P2 finish and you're like, 'Wow okay, we fought through, we got away with one where we probably should have finished 22nd to 25th. So there's definitely a difference in how you run and how you finish," Hamlin claimed.

Hamlin added that is why he doesn't have a particular 'finishing position' as a goal for Corey Heim.

Denny Hamlin lauds Corey Heim's first Cup start for 23XI at Nashville in 2024

Further sharing his thoughts on Corey Heim, the 23XI Racing co-owner spoke about whether the young driver would be competitive. Denny Hamlin touched on how Heim would have 'the fourth best ' pit crew in all of 23XI.

He mentioned that for Heim, they'd use their young development guys who are working hard to get to a full-time roster. Hamlin was quick to add that Heim would have the same car as Bubba Wallace or Tyler Reddick, saying [12:00]:

"All of them are going to be the same. So it'll be exciting to see kind of what he can do with it. And certainly what I've seen, I think in this very first race of 23XI at Nashville, he drove from the very back up to the top 12."

It's worth mentioning that Heim finished in 29th place at Nashville in 2024. Hamlin remarked how Heim was running in 11th or 12th before the flood of overtimes came.

In the end, Denny Hamlin added that if Heim has speed enough to run inside the top 15, he'd consider it 'a really good day.'