23XI gains a fourth with Corey Heim as team's first…

23XI Racing is adding a fourth car to its roster, albeit part-time, for the 2025 NASCAR Cup season. Behind the wheel — up-and-comer Corey Heim, who will join the team as its very first official developmental driver.

As part of the deal, Heim is slated to make several starts between the Cup and Xfinity series: piloting the No. 67 Toyota as an open entry for Cup starting beginning with Kansas, in May, and a part-time run with Sam Hunt Racing with support from 23XI in the Xfinity races beginning at COTA next weekend.

Heim made the Championship 4 in the NASCAR Truck Series for back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024. And the 22-year-old driver already has three Cup starts to his name, running two as a fill-in for an injured Erik Jones last year, finishing as high as 22nd. His third Cup start was with 23XI at Nashville, which unfortunately ended in a crash. He's also no stranger to Sam Hunt's Xfinity program, making 17 NXS starts with them over the last two years with a career-best finish of third.

"I'm just so grateful to have this opportunity with 23XI Racing," said Heim in a press conference Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He also thanked Toyota "for believing in me over the past couple of years," as he started with the manufacturer in 2020. He noted that it's been a "slow climb" as he embarks on his third full-time season in the Truck Series, but Toyota has been beside him every step of the way.

As a Truck Series driver, he has 12 wins including the 2025 season-opener at Daytona after Parker Kligerman's disqualification. In 2023, he was just a few laps away from potentially winning the Truck championship before contact from title rival Carson Hocevar upended his race.

Currently, his trajectory looks similar to Zane Smith, who also spent several years as a full-time driver in the Truck Series with plenty of success while dipping his toes in the upper two divisions. He then jumped straight from Trucks to Cup without ever running a complete Xfinity season. It remains to be seen if Heim will follow the same path as no plans for his future beyond 2025 have been revealed. But as he joins the likes of the No. 23 of Bubba Wallace, No. 35 of Riley Herbst, and No. 45 of Tyler Reddick, with veteran Bootie Barker on his pit box and Denny Hamlin as the team's co-owner, he'll have an incredible group of individuals to learn and grow from.