Race Weekend Central

Corey Heim Rebounds From Crash, Wins ARCA Race at Springfield

The ARCA Menards Series visited the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield on Sunday (Aug. 22) for the Allen Crowe 100, where Corey Heim and Ty Gibbs, so often neck-and-neck during the 2021 season, once again finished 1-2 for the sixth time this year.

This time, though, Heim came out on top, even while driving a battered No. 20 Toyota.

Heim claimed his sixth win of the season. Between himself and Gibbs, the pair have won 14 of the 15 races so far.

“It was really good today […] it was rolling really good,” Heim said after the race.”[…] We kind of got behind at one point, but feel great that we had the dominant car all day and glad I could bring home first.

“It’s definitely not ideal to be a part of. The lapped cars were pretty rough today, it’s a one groove track. […] A racing deal, I feel like, but at the end of the day we brought it home first.”

Heim and Gibbs rolled off first and second, respectively, and the former led early while Gibbs fell back. Justin Allgaier was in the field, running his first ARCA event since his title-winning 2008 season, and worked his way from a starting position of eighth up to sixth by the 20-lap mark. By that point, Heim led by more than seven seconds over Jesse Love.

Before the first race break, defending winner Ryan Unzicker suffered engine issues.

DL Wilson brought out the first natural caution when he stalled on lap 47, followed soon after by another yellow for race leader Heim.

Heim tried to lap Mike Goudie and tapped him in the left rear, but both cars ended up spinning. Goudie’s car was mangled the most of the two, while Heim was able to continue with a bit of damage on his right-front fender.

Heim restarted third and then was later able to repair the damage under the next race break, allowing him to rebound even further…to the lead. Heim took control once again with 24 laps to go and stretched the lead, winning by three seconds over Gibbs and more than 10 seconds over everyone else.

Taylor Gray, Allgaier and Love rounded out the top five.

The race capped off a doubleheader weekend. Gibbs won Friday (Aug. 20) evening’s race at Michigan before the series headed to Illinois.

“It’s been a long weekend,” Heim said. “We had the doubleheader this weekend so wanted to win the other day, but battled back today and got it done today. Just really happy to be here and can’t wait for the next one.”

Allen Crowe 100 Results

ARCA racing returns next week with the Sprecher 150 at the Milwaukee Mile, which will get started at 3 p.m. ET and have coverage on MAVTV and TrackPass.

About the author

Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he works as a producer and talent for Audacy Richmond's radio stations. In addition to motorsports journalism, Adam also covered and broadcasted numerous VCU athletics for the campus newspaper and radio station during his four years there. He's been a racing fan since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.

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