Heim time

 I wouldn't know  a genuine phee-nom these days if he went upside my head with his phee-nomness, this being an era of supercharged hype. But I think I saw one yesterday, tooling around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a stock car.

His name is Corey Heim, he turned 24 just three weeks ago, and if he's not the next big star in NASCAR Cup racing, he sure played one on TV yesterday. Driving the 67 car for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin's team, 23XI Racing, he qualified seventh for the Brickyard 400, passed his boss (Hamlin) for the lead on the last restart, and led 58 laps -- including the last 35, when Christopher Bell and an onrushing Joey Logano were filling his mirrors and every nerve in his body must have been singing arias.

But the kid stayed cool, the kid stayed chilly. Despite his ride getting looser with every lap -- and despite the veteran Bell hanging within half-a-second of him all the way -- he just kept getting into and off of Indy's notoriously quirky corners, never giving Bell enough of an opening to get a run on him.

It was a masterful piece of wheel work from a young driver who A) isn't even a full-time Cupper yet, and B) had never so much as seen IMS until this weekend.

And yet there Corey Heim was at the end, kissing the bricks, kissing his girlfriend and kissing the trophy as if Indy were, I don't know, South Hog Wallow Speedway or somewhere. He'll run all of 12 Cup races this season, and already in his first eight starts he's  won two of them -- including, yesterday, one of the series' crown jewels.

Last guy to win twice in his first eight Cup starts?

Some dude named A.J. Foyt. Perhaps you've heard of him.

So who is Corey Heim?

Well, he hails from Marietta, Ga., and last season he won NASCAR's Craftsman Truck series in a blowout. Won a series-record 12 races, and led at least a lap in every race on the schedule. 

Everyone knew the kid was special, in other words. But this special, this fast?

Hoo boy. 

Now, it must be said here that Heim's win was only the culmination of a weekend in which youth was well-served. Carson Hocevar, who started on the pole and finished ninth, is just 23. Tyler Gibbs, also just 23, started fourth and led 46 laps. So there's that.

There's also this: At 24, Heim is the youngest Brickyard winner since ... well, since a dude named Jeff Gordon, who was just 23 when he won the first Brickyard 400 in 1994.

Perhaps you've heard of him, too.