There’s something about Nashville that always seems to leave Denny Hamlin wanting more. In 2024, he led 70 laps only to lose the win in overtime. This year, the heartbreak was subtler but just as sharp. Hamlin finished third at the Cracker Barrel 400 after fighting through traffic, strategy calls, and a track that never offered him its full embrace. For a veteran chasing that Nashville victory, the frustration lingers like the Tennessee heat.
But as he walked away without a trophy once again, another figure in his camp quietly turned heads. He did not finish on the podium. He did not even finish the race. And yet, when Kevin Harvick pointed to the next big name in the Cup series, it wasn’t the race winner or the runner-up. It was this young driver, with a calm, collected presence, with grit in his eyes and lessons in his rearview mirror.
Kevin Harvick did not hesitate. When asked who’s getting the makings of NASCAR’s next big thing, he pointed straight to Corey Heim. Kevin Harvick didn’t just see a rookie stumble—he saw a crucial step in the journey. Every top driver has to take. Harvick pointed that out. Heim was getting real-time guidance from his spotter to hold the outside line, but in the heat of battle, he tried to squeeze every bit of track he could. That split-second miscalculation—trying to make a bold move with too little space—is exactly the kind of rookie mistake that comes with learning the ropes in Cup racing.
He goes on to explain, in his recent episode of the ‘Happy Hour’ podcast, saying, “Well, the spotter kept telling him to go outside, and he just made a mistake getting up the racetrack, probably just trying to take everything that he can get—misjudged. But those are all the experiences. As much as we’ve talked about Corey Heim needing to be here already, you still see the rookie mistakes and the inexperience at the Cup level in scenarios like this. These are all things that he’s got to go through. And in the end, I truly believe that Corey Heim will be a Cup Series winner.”
Harvick has been around long enough to know talent when he sees it, and then, Heim, he is more than just potential. He reminded fans that even though Corey has shown flashes of brilliance, this series is a whole different beast. No matter how talented a driver is, the jump from trucks or Xfinity to Cup brings a steep learning curve. Mistakes like these are part of paying dues—the hard knocks that toughen a driver mentally and physically. Confidence in Heim isn’t blind optimism—it’s grounded in the belief that every future champion has had moments like this.
Kevin Harvick further added, “I think once we get three to five years down the road, we’ll be talking about Corey Heim winning Cup races once they get the right crew chief and team around him and he gets that 100 races under his belt. He already has done better than most guys that step into the car in a short amount of time, but again, that’s not a fair judgment of how he’s going to do because until you’re in this grind every single week—and have to deal with the sponsors and the media and the criticism at a level that you’ve never experienced before in Trucks and Xfinity—we don’t know.”
But Harvick was quick to remind folks that talent alone isn’t enough—handling the weekly grind, the media, the pressure, and the sponsors—that’s where the real test lies.
On Sunday, Heim showed both sides of that coin. Driving the No. 67 Toyota Camry XSE for 23XI Racing, he had real speed, charging from a P33 start through the field. But on lap 132, things unraveled. He tried to clear Brad Keselowski coming off turn four and didn’t quite have the space. Both drivers ended up hitting the wall, and just like that, Heim’s night was over with the DNF.
And to his credit, Corey Heim didn’t dance around it. Immediately apologize to Brad. In a post-race interview with NBC, the 22-year-old goes on to say, “I’m pretty sure I just kind of cleared myself across the nose of (Brad Keselowski). A little bit too desperate. We were moving forward really quick, and I had a lot of confidence in my Camry and thought I could clear him by the time I got to the wall and just used too much racetrack, so sorry to those guys. It looks like I kind of ruined his day, too, and never want to do that.”
Corey Heim admitted he was feeling confident in his chief back Camry, maybe a little too confident. He knew what it meant for Keselowski’s day, too. Heim wound up 37th, just ahead of Noah Grason, who also didn’t make it to the finish. But if you ask Harvick, the result doesn’t tell the whole story. Being compared to Kyle Larson is no small thing.
While Heim took the hard knocks of a rookie knight with his head held high, the other driver in that fateful turn 4 scuffle had his own set of frustrations to sort through. Brad Keselowski, the veteran who is no stranger to Nashville’s unforgiving concrete, did not just walk away with a crumpled racecar—he walked away with lessons and a hunger that only grew louder.
Concrete battles fuel Keselowski’s comeback
When you think NASCAR, you bet your roaring engines are going through asphalt—a gritty expectation that demands respect: concrete tracks. Just 3 cup series venues sport that unforgiving surface. Bristol Motor Speedway, Dover Motor Speedway, and Sunday’s host, Nashville Superspeedway. And Nashville? It’s the toughest puzzle of them all. But for a veteran like Brad Keselowski, concrete means a whole different beast.
Brad Keselowski, the 36-time Cup winner and co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, knows all too well the unique challenges these concrete surfaces present. Of his wins, six came on concrete tracks, but Nashville remains the one that has eluded him. Despite four starts at Music City in the Cup series, Keselowski has yet to crack the top 10 there, a stat he is eager to change.
Keselowski admitted, saying, “What I have always enjoyed about it is that the concrete is just really, really unforgiving and takes a lot of discipline. When you get sideways, the car is much more difficult to recover, generally. I just think it is a different type of racing than asphalt racing. It is something different, interesting, that kind of breaks up the schedule a little bit. We have to survive the restarts and bring speed. I think we can do both of those.” Nashville’s 1.333-mile concrete layout stands apart from Bristol and Martinsville’s tight half-mile bruisers and Dover’s long “Monster Mile,” making it a unique test of skill and patience.
Nashville is no stranger to Brad’s career highlights—he took his first NASCAR win there in 2008 in the Xfinity Series, racing for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports. Over 10 Xfinity starts at Nashville, the No. 6 driver wrapped up two wins and seven top-five finishes. 17 years later, the Michigan native hopes that same magic will finally translate to a Cup victory at the same track.
The stakes are high. Keselowski arrived in Nashville riding the momentum of his best finish so far this season—a solid fifth place at the grueling Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, marking his first top 10 of 2025. Sitting 32nd in points, just outside the playoff cut-off, Keselowski knows a strong showing in Music City isn’t just about pride—it’s about keeping his championship hopes alive.
Bad Brad went on to say, “We need to build off of [the Charlotte momentum] and incrementally inch our way up to being able to win. I think we are really close to that right now. Trying not to jump the shark on that is important. But last week was a really positive moment for us.”
With concrete behind him and momentum slowly building, Brad Keselowski knows what’s at stake. Nashville may not have been the best breakthrough he hoped for, but the grit is unmistakable. With great determination, as the NASCAR Cup Series races in Michigan coming Sunday, Brad’s eyes are set on Michigan.
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