While attention centers on the championship chase in Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talledega, and which members of NASCAR’s “Big Three,” Hendrick, Gibbs and Penske, will survive and remain viable title contenders in the remaining two races, there is another “Big Three” that are working their way up and should have a major impact on the sport in future years.
They are Carson Hocevar, 23; Connor Zilsch, 21; and Corey Heim, 24. Capsulizing their performances this season, Hocevar gets the headlines, Zilsch gets the ride, and Heim gets it done.
After limited success in trucks, Hocevar was signed by Spire Motorsports, a second tier Chevy team, in 2024. And he did nothing to distinguish himself until this year, when he won the Talladega spring race and gained national attention for his burnout.
He continued to gain fan support with his aggressive tactics on the track, frequently knocking competitors out of the way to improve his position at times when it really didn’t matter in terms of the outcome of the race, then belligerently defending his moves when other drivers called him out afterwards.
His fan base loved it, making a false comparison to Dale Earnhardt, and he rapidly became one of the most popular drivers in the sport despite his inability to run up front after Talladega. Unlike Hocevar, Earnhardt competed consistently for wins and when he knocked somebody out of the way, there was usually a reason for it.,
Zilsch’s situation is more complicated. He had an impressive season with JR Motorsports in 2025, wining 10 races in the Xfinity Series including 18 top fives in a row, a series record, which earned him a promotion to Trackhouse Racing, another tier two Chevy team.
But probably in part because Trackhouse’s cars are absolutely awful, Zilsch has done absolutely nothing this year, scoring just five points on the Old Guy Sport competition index. Only Shane van Gisbergen, perhaps the best road racer in NASCAR history, has been able to win at Trackhouse. Yet despite that, Rick Hendrick recently signed Zilsch to replace Alex Bowman in 2028.
Then there’s Heim. He was the 2025 truck champion, winning 12 races, and is driving parttime for Toyota’s 23XI team, where he will be fulltime next year, replacing Riley Herbst. Driving just 13 races, Heim won twice in his first 12 starts, taking the road race at San Diego and then the Indy Brickyard 400, one of NASCAR’s most prestigious events. The last time that happened in NASCAR was 1965, when some guy named A.J. Foyt pulled it off.
And if you compare the records of the three, Heim stands out although it should he noted he is the only one of the three in a winning car and in NASCAR now, if you don’t have a car that can win you won’t win. The car has become more important than the driver. In 12 races so far, Heim has two wins, three top fives and four top 10s. In 33 races, Hocevar has done well with one win, six top fives and 11 top 10s while Zilsch has no wins, no top fives and one top 10, also in 33 races.
After his Brickyard win, Heim was quoted on NASCAR’s website as saying success in trucks doesn’t guarantee success in Cup. “The competition in this series is kind of like no other,” Heim said. “But the fact that we’ve kind of had everything line up really well as far as the speed in these Toyotas and 23XI specifically has been surreal.
“To be part of this program when they’ve hit their peak, and hopefully we can keep it there for as long as I’m with them, they’ve definitely been riding high this year. I feel fortunate to be able to be a part of that.”
Steve Lauletta, president of 23XI, said that the team and Heim’s success are proof that “the processes we put in place are working. It shows that the people at 23XI are really special. They continue to surprise me and amaze me with what we’ve been able to accomplish in a short period of time.”
Heim feels one of the reasons he’s had so much success so early in his career is because unlike a lot of young drivers, he didn’t jump right from a feeder series to a fulltime Cup ride. “I think a little bit of it is just running the part-time schedule, being able to sort of have gaps between each race,” Heim said.
“I feel it’s pretty rare that someone gets to run a bridge year and then go full time to Cup. A lot of guys go straight from O’Reilly or trucks to Cup without a lot of experience,” Heim said.
Of course Heim’s rapid rise is leading to high expectations for next year. “I think the outside expectations will probably be higher than they would be if I didn’t win,” Heim said. “I don’t know. I feel like I’m pretty good at just focusing on myself and the task at hand, not getting caught up in what other people say or think, just making sure I do my job and execute as I should.
“I try my best to not let the outside noise or expectations affect what I do on the racetrack,” Heim commented. “I’m going to try and keep doing that as I progress through my rookie season.”
NASCAR NOTES
No race this week. Old Guy Sport does not count superspeedway races in its standings because too much luck is involved in running well. You have to avoid the “big wreck,” which can happen anytime and which you can’t prepare for in advance because you don’t know when it will happen, and you have to be in the right lane at the right time coming out of the fourth turn on the last lap and that is totally dependent on what the cars around you decide to do.
OGS competition index after 28 races: 1-Denny Hamlin 621 points, 2-Christopher Bell 558, 3-Kyle Larson 541, 4-Chase Briscoe 477, 5-Tyler Reddick 466, 6-Ryan Blaney 419, 7-Ty Gibbs 354, 8-Joey Logano 319, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 226, 1-Chase Elliott 222.