23XI Racing development driver Corey Heim returned to the NASCAR Cup Series for this past weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway, marking his first appearance since he unfortunately became the first driver to fail to qualify for a non-Daytona 500 Cup race since 2018 on the streets of Chicago due to a mistake in qualifying.<\/p>\n
Heim, who beat 23XI Racing’s three full-time drivers in his first start of the year behind the wheel of the No. 67 Toyota at Kansas Speedway in May en route to a 13th place finish, was locked into the race at Richmond and brought the car home in 29th.<\/p>\n
But moving forward, the Tricon Garage Truck Series championship and wins leader has no plans to compete in the Cup Series before the 2025 season ends, and 23XI Racing will not field their fourth car in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway to wrap up the regular season.<\/p>\n
Heim’s other start of 2025 came at Nashville Superspeedway in early June. He crashed out of that race.<\/p>\n
23XI Racing back to three cars for Daytona<\/p>\n
The three cars run full-time by the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team and driven by Bubba Wallace (No. 23 Toyota), Riley Herbst (No. 35 Toyota) and Tyler Reddick (No. 45 Toyota) are all technically non-chartered (open) cars amid the team’s ongoing lawsuit against NASCAR, but they are all still locked into each race thanks to a rule change<\/a>, even if there are more than 40 cars on the entry list.<\/p>\n This weekend, even without the No. 67 Toyota, there are exactly 40.<\/p>\n There are four part-time open cars on the entry list for this Saturday night’s 160-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked Daytona Beach, Florida oval, including the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, which was the only one aside from the No. 67 car to compete at Richmond.<\/p>\n Austin Hill is set to drive the No. 33 car after Jesse Love drove it at Richmond. Joey Gase is set to drive the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet, Casey Mears is set to drive the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, and B.J. McLeod is set to drive the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet.<\/p>\n