Inside The Garage: How A Part-Time Driver Is Shaking Up NASCAR

Here's what's happening this week Inside The Garage: INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (Indianapolis) — Corey Heim has driven eight races this year and has scored more points than the other heralded young NASCAR Cup Series prospect. Heim has more points than full-time rookie Connor Zilisch has earned in 22 races, thanks to his two victories and Zilisch's string of races where he hasn't finished. That’s right, two victories — at Naval Base Coronado last month and then Sunday at the Brickyard 400 — in eight starts. That’s eight starts with a part-time fourth car at 23XI Racing, so that’s part of the equation. He has some of the best equipment in the NASCAR Cup Series garage. "The competition in this series is kind of like no other, but the fact that we've had everything line up really well as far as the speed in these Toyotas this year with 23XI specifically, has been just surreal," Heim said in his postrace news conference. But it takes more than equipment to be the first driver since A.J. Foyt to win two Cup races in his first 15 overall series starts. And he’s the first part-time series driver to win two races in a season since both Davey Allison and Tim Richmond accomplished the feat in 1987. The 24-year-old Heim has won 21 of the last 40 truck races he has entered and won the 2025 series title. He is set to be a full-time Cup driver in 2027 with 23XI. "He's really talented." three-time Cup champion Joey Logano told me after the race where Logano finished third. "Turns out, I know his trucks are good, but I think the driver was spectacular. "He’s got it. We're going to be battling him forever. He'll be here longer than me. He's a lot younger than me, but he'll be here the whole time. Just a solid racecar driver. He does the right things. He doesn't get risky. He doesn't get nervous. Just executes really well." Logano gave Heim the push he needed on a late restart to win the Brickyard 400 and Heim took it from there. "He put together a magnificent last run," Christopher Bell told me after finishing second to Heim. "He was loose. My guys were saying he was loose. I could kind of see him wiggling a little bit. He did a great job, and he didn’t make a mistake and won the race." Heim’s accomplishments are no surprise to those who worked with him. Because he is in a part-time car, Heim is also often the first to go out and qualify. That typically means, at best, a mediocre starting position. "If we would have had a better [spot when going out] in qualifying, we would have won more already," Heim crew chief Bootie Barker said in his postrace news conference. Barker wasn’t trying to be boastful. He says it as fact, just like he did when he first explained how Heim has won two races as a part-time driver. "Everybody thinks I'm always joking, but I mean what I say: He's more talented than anybody else," Barker said. Barker then couched that comment: "That's almost being a disservice to some of the great drivers here. That's not the case. Like all the people we were racing at the end are the best of the best, tremendous [and I] show much respect to them. "But Corey is there in talent. Corey is also there in work ethic. He's there as far as a mentality. He has all that." But the bottom line is that the kid has enough talent that he already has a simmering rivalry with Carson Hocevar that has followed them from their time together competing in trucks. They don’t like each other and at one point, Hocevar flipped off Heim for the way he blocked Heim. Heim didn’t care. He won. And Hocevar, who has one Cup victory in nearly three seasons at the Cup level, certainly recognizes Heim’s talent. "He's really good with air and manipulating air," Hocevar told me after the race. "We have a lot of similarities from that standpoint, and I think that's why you know in trucks and then here, we're up front and ... it's almost like we know each move because that's what I would be doing or that's what he would be doing. "Their stuff's really fast. [I was the] top Chevy for us. That's good." That could sound like a little bit of sour grapes. Probably is, but it’s also a little bit of fact. "Toyota [is the reason for it]," 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski told me about Heim's accomplishments after the race. "He’s doing a good job. "You can’t take anything away from Corey. He’s executing these races well. He’s not beating himself. His pit crew is doing everything right. And he’s in the fastest cars. It’s really impressive." Heim can’t really describe how he has won two races with a part-time team other than to surmise that he can focus more on each individual race since he runs on a limited basis. He also drives for Toyota when the manufacturers have data-gathering tests, giving him plenty of track time when he isn’t in a Cup car or the occasional truck. The two wins probably change what people would expect of him next year as a full-time driver. He is going to be a serious threat to make The Chase. "I definitely felt like this year started off rockier than I would have liked," Heim said. "I went to Daytona and crashed. At Kansas, we finished worse than we did the previous year. It’s been a steady incline up to this point. Winning San Diego, top-10 in Chicago, winning here [at the Brickyard], it's been a heck of a last couple races. "If you asked me four months ago what my expectations were for 2027, I would have answered differently than now for sure." So what’s next? "Clearly, he's with a great team," Bell said. "And he’s a great driver. He's a Cup guy. He's going to do really well next year." In The News — Jimmie Johnson will get to use the No. 48 for his final Cup race, the 2027 Daytona 500. Johnson worked a deal with Hendrick Motorsports for use of the number he had for his seven Cup titles. The number is currently used for the car of Alex Bowman, whose number for the Daytona 500 has not been announced. — Dreyer & Reinbold Racing has purchased a charter from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the INDYCAR Series. The team has not named a driver and noted that whether it is Chevy or Honda next year is still to be determined. The organization has run Chevys recently in its Indianapolis 500 attempts. — St. Petersburg Grand Prix weekend will include both INDYCAR and the Craftsman Truck Series next season as this year’s doubleheader was deemed a success. It is expected to be the INDYCAR opener. The dates are set for March 5-7, 2027. — NASCAR's preseason Clash is expected to move from Bowman Gray Stadium to its original location, Daytona International Speedway, according to a report in The Athletic. The event is expected to be Saturday night before the Super Bowl and four days before Daytona 500 qualifying. — Brad Keselowski confirmed that RFK Racing picked up the option on Ryan Preece for 2027 a few months ago, and they are set to race the No. 60 car chartered or unchartered next season. The organization is leasing a charter this year that will go to Legacy Motor Club for 2027. — NASCAR will increase the amount of practice for Cup cars from two groups for 25 minutes apiece to one group for 50 minutes starting with the race weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next month. — NASCAR Vice President for Vehicle Performance Eric Jacuzzi announced on LinkedIn his departure from NASCAR: "Bittersweet but after almost 13 years at NASCAR it's time for something different." Jacuzzi was NASCAR's lead aerodynamicist & played pivotal role in aero package development. Chase Clinched These drivers have clinched spots in The Chase following Indianapolis: Cup — Ty Gibbs clinched to join Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney. O’Reilly — Carson Kvapil, Sheldon Creed, Corey Day, Brandon Jones and Austin Hill clinched to join Justin Allgaier and Jesse Love. Truck — Christian Eckes and Gio Ruggerio clinched to join Layne Riggs, Kaden Honeycutt and Chandler Smith. Picture This Social Spotlight They Said It "You love talking about a guy that finished ninth." — Race winner Corey Heim following a couple of questions about Carson Hocevar. capturengo.com

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don't worry, we're here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Munetaka Murakami helped propel the White Sox to relevancy in his first 57 games in the majors, by batting .240/.378/.560 with 20 homers through May 29. The rookie first baseman ended up on the IL with a hamstring strain, however, and only recently returned after missing 35 games. While he struggled a bit in his first week back, the second one has been much better: Murakami has a 1.126 OPS in his last six games, and on Sunday against the Astros went 3-for-5 with a career-high six RBIs in a 12-3 win. Murakami responded to a first-inning solo homer by Astros’ shortstop Jeremy Peña by belting a two-run shot off Ronel Blanco in the bottom of the inning. Peña tied things back up with his second dinger of the day, but Murakami gave the White Sox back the lead with an RBI ground out in the third. In the seventh, with Chicago already up 6-3, he hit a two-run single to make it five RBIs on the day. He wasn’t done yet, however: his third and final hit against Houston was a second home run, No. 22 on the season, to give Chicago a 12-3 lead and Murakami his sixth ribbie of the game. All of this on his bobblehead day, too! Murakami, despite missing dozens of games, is just one home run behind Blue Jays’ third baseman Kazuma Okamoto for the most-ever by a Japan-born rookie — Okamoto just passed the previous record held by Dodgers’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani. With Murakami feeling healthy and looking as much again, Okamoto might not hold onto that record for very long. The Phillies have had it rough of late, going just 9-11 in July to this point after back-to-back 18-win months to reverse their early struggles. Philadelphia has dropped series to the Mets, Dodgers and now Yankees in a row, but on Sunday, at least Philly avoided a sweep with a convincing W over New York. Second baseman Bryson Stott made it 2-0 Phillies in the second with his eighth homer of the year, a hard liner 110 mph off the bat against Will Warren — this one got out of the park in a hurry. In the next inning, third baseman Alec Bohm hit a three-run double to make it 5-0, and then Stott added a single to put the Phillies up by half-a-dozen. While New York would cut that lead in half with a three-run fifth, Philadelphia didn’t wait long to push it back to a six-run lead and then more. Shortstop Trea Turner singled in a run in the seventh, then Bohm was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, plating another. Stott then came up again, and hit his 20th double of the year to clear the bases and make it 11-3, as well as giving himself a five-RBI performance. DH Ben Rice would hit a garbage time solo shot to make it 11-4, but that was all for scoring from both sides from there. Stott went 3-for-4 with a run, homer, double and five RBIs, which was more than enough to support a quality start from Cristopher Sánchez. While the Phillies are 5.5 back of the Braves now thanks to recent struggles, they are still two ahead in the NL wild-card race, with seven teams within seven games of them in the standings. Things could be worse, and if this just ends up being a little midseason slump and not more of Philadelphia’s early season struggles, then that lead should be plenty. That’s why they play the games, though! While the Phillies ended a four-game skid, the Marlins weren’t so lucky. Miami was swept by the Padres and have lost a franchise-worst 12 games in a row, and this coming off of a June in which the Marlins led the majors with 20 wins. Just as bad is how Miami lost this one. It was leading 3-1 through seven innings, but in the eighth, everything unraveled fast. DH Manny Machado — who to that point was responsible for the lone Padres’ run, on an RBI double in the fifth — came up to the plate with second baseman Jake Cronenworth already on base. Cronenworth had hit a leadoff single against new pitcher Lake Bachar, and Machado would follow that with his 23rd homer of the season — tie game, 3-3. Machado, by the way, is now up to a 102 OPS+ on the season after an abysmal May and most of June, as he’s hit .293/.390/.638 with seven doubles and 11 homers over his last 31 games and 136 plate appearances. Center fielder Jackson Merrill would hit the go-ahead dinger two batters later, then backstop Luis Campusano would drive in third baseman Luis Rengifo to make it 5-3. The Padres’ bullpen would hold Miami down the rest of the way, and with the W move back to .500, at 53-53. The Marlins are now actually a game behind the Padres in the NL wild-card race: San Diego is two back, Miami three. Ryan O’Hearn’s birthday is July 26 — hey, that was yesterday — and he celebrated the best way an MLB player can. Not just with a win, but with one he was largely responsible for: the Pirates defeated the Cubs, 8-7, in a game in which O’Hearn hit a grand slam. A birthday grand slam! That was his 17th homer of the year, and it was huge for the Pirates: with the Diamondbacks losing, Pittsburgh picked up a game in the NL wild-card standings, and sits just one game behind Arizona for the third of three spots now, allowing them to keep pace with the Nationals. The Brewers have wanted to try to give Jacob Misiorowski a bit of a break when possible, given he’s in his first full season in the majors and has already thrown nearly as many innings in 2026 as he did in all of 2025 across the minors and MLB. So, you knew he wasn’t going to actually have a shot at matching or setting any strikeout records on Sunday, but that didn’t make his performance any less exciting. Miz struck out the first seven Rockies he faced, and 11 of the first 12. Through the first four innings, he had allowed zero baserunners, to boot. Misiorowski ended up getting "just" one strikeout in the fifth, and allowed his sole hit and run of the day on a solo homer by rookie center fielder Cole Carrigg. Milwaukee lifted their young ace at 83 pitches rather than push him, trusting that the pen and lineup could make this 3-1 lead last, and they sure did. Not only did the bullpen match Miz by giving up just one more run, but the Brewers scored another eight for an 11-2 final. The 24-year-old Miz is leading the majors with 185 strikeouts in 120 innings: he’s struck out a league-best 13.9 batters per nine and 40.6% of the batters he has faced. His ERA is also leading the majors, at 1.58 — there is a whole lot of season left and little reason to push Miz now, not when what’s in front of both the Brewers and Misiorowski is bigger than a July matchup against the Rockies. No offense, Colorado, you get it. The Twins took down the Athletics, 11-8, and got there in part thanks to a Little League home run. In the bottom of the first, right fielder Kody Clemens came up with a runner on, and hit a triple to right field on a line drive. That should have just made it a 2-0 game, but shortstop Alika Williams made a bad throw. The Twins’ social media accounts initially described it as an inside-the-park homer, but Williams was charged with an error, making this the Little League variant of a homer. The run counts the same, though, and that 3-0 lead Minnesota started with stands out in a game won by three runs. The A’s continue to spiral and now have the second-worst record in the American League, but Minnesota finds itself one game back of a wild-card spot after taking this weekend series, behind the Guardians and ahead of the Mariners, Astros, Orioles and Tigers, all of which are within 3.5 games of Cleveland. The Mariners aren’t back over .500 yet despite sitting 1.5 back of a wild-card, but got a little closer on Sunday with a win over the Rangers — Seattle is also just 1.5 back of Texas in the AL West standings, so it isn’t stuck going for just one race here. In a 6-4 victory, most of the damage was done by Randy Arozarena and Dominic Canzone. The latter was Seattle’s DH, while the former lined up in left, and the two hit third and fourth in the lineup, respectively. That ended up mattering, because in the seventh, Canzone hit his 16th homer of the year, a three-run shot to put the Mariners ahead, 4-3… …and then Arozarena followed with a solo shot on the very next pitch, a middle-middle cutter. Canzone would add another in the ninth with an RBI double, his third hit and fourth RBI of the day. All told, the duo went 6-for-10 with two runs and five RBIs, and most of that coming against the Rangers’ bullpen: Jacob deGrom threw five innings and allowed just one run with four strikeouts and no walks, but the pen erased that work in short order. Would you like to see Angels’ right fielder Jo Adell hit a 446-foot home run? That was actually his second blast of the day, as well as second and third RBIs — the Angels ended up defeating the Giants, 4-3, with that absolute shot being the difference. There are now five MLB players with 30 home runs in 2026, thanks to Nationals’ right fielder James Wood making the Diamondbacks’ day a bad one. Wood went 2-for-4 with a pair of homers and three RBIs to go along with a walk and two runs, helping to power a 10-7 dub for the Nats. His first one was a shot, too, at 430 feet and 108.3 mph off the bat, and it also tied the game up 4-4 in the fifth. Then, in the eighth, Wood hit one "just" 418 feet to left-center, with a 109.6 mph exit velocity. Wood is now one homer shy of his 2025 total, a career-best 31, with 56 games to go in 2026. He’s hitting .271/.396/.557 while leading the NL in OPS and total bases and the majors in runs and walks. Oh, right, and he’s still just 23 years old. The Mets are reportedly preparing to trade… well. A lot of players. New York is just 44-62, in last place in the NL East and holding the second-worst record in the NL despite an estimated payroll of $366 million, so some changes have to be made. On Sunday, though, the Mets looked like they were supposed to, defeating the Dodgers 8-3. Offseason trade acquisition — and likely future member of [contender] Freddy Peralta, in the midst of a disappointing campaign, went four innings but gave up three runs before handing things off to a bullpen that was up to the task. The offense did its job, too, with left fielder Tyrone Taylor hitting a three-run shot in the sixth to put New York up, 4-3. The offense did not look back. A passed ball resulted in another run in the seventh, then second baseman Marcus Semien — who had come into the game as a defensive sub — launched a three-run homer to make it 8-3, the final score. It’s not a loss that will harm the Dodgers overly much: Los Angeles still has the best record in the majors and is 12 games up on the next-closest NL West team even though Arizona is also in possession of a postseason spot right now. It’s a good reminder for the Mets, though, that they have pieces worth dealing and pieces worth keeping, all in the name of getting it right next time.

DeVonta Smith is once again the big man on campus. Smith went from being a Heisman Trophy winner in 2020, to the Eagles' No. 1 receiver as a rookie in 2021. However, the very next season, A.J. Brown came to town. Since then, the two have shared the spotlight on the outside in Philly, but Brown was almost universally regarded as the No. 1 wide receiver. But now Brown is in New England, and Smith is back to where it all started — as the top wideout. So, who will have a better 2026? Let's see what the odds say about the former teammates, as of July 27 at DraftKings Sportsbook. This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports. Most regular-season receiving yards A.J. Brown: -125 (bet $10 to win $18 total)DeVonta Smith: -105 (bet $10 to win $19.52 total) Most regular-season receiving TDs A.J. Brown: -200 (bet $10 to win $15 total)DeVonta Smith: +155 (bet $10 to win $25.50 total) During that rookie season, when Smith was the Eagles' top target on the outside, he caught 64 balls for 916 yards and five touchdowns in 16 starts. Those are big-time numbers for a first-year player. However, Philly landed Brown via trade prior to the 2022 season, giving the Eagles a two-headed monster. In their first year together, Smith registered 1,176 yards and seven scores in 17 starts, while Brown tallied 1,496 yards and 11 touchdowns (16 starts). Brown was subsequently named a Pro Bowler for the second time in his career. He was also named second-team All Pro. In 2023, Brown received the same accolades after putting up 1,456 yards and seven TDs (16 starts), and then in 2024, he was named second-team All-Pro again, tallying 1,079 yards and seven touchdowns (13 starts). As for Smith, in 2023, he put up 1,066 yards and seven TDs (16 starts), and in 2024, he went for 833 yards and eight scores (13 starts). Last season, Smith had 1,008 yards and four TDs, and Brown had 1,003 yards and seven TDs. In June, Brown was traded to New England. Joining Smith in Philadelphia is rookie wideout Makai Lemon, the 20th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. He had 1,156 receiving yards and 11 TDs at USC last season. Brown will now serve as the top receiving option for Drake Maye in New England. He will lineup alongside former Packers wideout Romeo Doubs, who had 724 yards and six scores in Green Bay last season.