When it comes to the last lap of a superspeedway race, Corey Heim isn’t going to apologize.
He’s going to go wherever “my best interest(s)” lay. He’s going for it.
That was the impression I got from the pit-road interview by the Toyota development and Sam Hunt Racing driver on Saturday (Sept. 7) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Honestly, I did a little mental fist pump for him.
“I came here to win the race, and for a team like Sam Hunt Racing to have an opportunity at their first win,” Heim said. “I want to give them that opportunity.”
He wanted to win, regardless of whether one of the cars in front of him — driven by Chandler Smith — had the same manufacturer logo as his.
In the pursuit of Austin Hill and a win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, Heim, running in third coming out of turn 4, elected to push Hill in the high line coming to the white flag instead of Smith on the low line.
“He had no run or no momentum, so why go to the bottom at that point?” asked Heim, who actually wound up finishing fifth behind Smith after Hill forced him into the wall.
“It was in my best interest to try to stay high,” said Heim, who tried to pass Hill on the outside in turn 2 — and failed — instead of dropping low in front of Smith, who was already behind Parker Kligerman in fourth.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Smith wasn’t pleased.
“I expected my Toyota teammate to come with me,” Smith said.
I think someone needed to remind Smith that it was the *last lap*.
If I could wave a magic wand when the white flag is waving on a NASCAR race, I would do one of two things: either make the manufacturer symbols on every car disappear or have each driver temporarily forget who they drive for.
It’s kind of absurd, but this was the second time in three weeks that someone got unjustly criticized for what they did on the last lap of a superspeedway race.
The first time it was for Parker Retzlaff at Daytona International Speedway.
Making just his second career NASCAR Cup Series start, the 21-year-old had the audacity to stick to Harrison Burton‘s rear bumper on the final lap of the race instead of dropping into the lower line behind Christopher Bell and fellow Chevrolet driver Kyle Busch.
When the checkered flag fell, Burton earned his first career Cup win and a playoff spot. Busch was second and eventually missed the playoffs a week later.
Someone one wasn’t happy.
Chevrolet.
Retzlaff implied, and didn’t go into details, that he had received heat from on high for the decision he felt “was best for me and everyone who supports me.”
That the bow tie brigade would have felt the need to show their displeasure with Retzlaff — who had been in position to his first NASCAR … well, anything — in the days after the race is bothersome.
No one does more damage to manufacturer image at superspeedway tracks than the manufacturers.
Remember way back in 2016 when Joe Gibbs Racing’s four cars stuck nose-to-tail in the bottom lane of the Daytona 500 for pretty much the entire race?
They had the front four positions on lock … up until the white flag. That’s when Denny Hamlin popped out of fourth place to lead a charge from the second lane in turn 2.
Two miles later, Hamlin won the closest finish in the race’s history.
Before that, it had been all JGR/Toyota.
From my perspective, it was the race that truly unleashed Pandora’s Box.
There’s a direct line from it to a race at Talladega Superspeedway in 2019 you may remember.
The race was in the middle of a rain delay — and would eventually be pushed to Monday — when Chevrolet held an all-hands-on-deck meeting with its drivers to discuss strategy.
You may recall the sight of drivers leaving that meeting, being captured by TV cameras and quickly scurrying away in order to avoid being caught at the scene of the crime.
Drivers then played coy, saying all they were doing was “talking about the design for the new Corvette.”
NBC Sports analyst Dale Jarrett wasn’t pleased.
“Meetings with manufacturers telling drivers what to do — I don’t like it,” Jarrett said. “I understand that race teams work together. I understand asking their guys to work together whenever you can.
“But it doesn’t always suit for a driver trying to get a victory for their team or position themselves better in the playoffs, and if they’re doing what I’ve been told — that there could be consequences if they don’t follow those orders. I think that is a terrible idea. It really, in my opinion, has no place in NASCAR racing.”
What’s funny, while it can be said this manufacturer interference is to help get a race win, it’s mostly just so each organization can pit together at the same time … and then get a win.
Going back to the tiff between Heim and Smith.
Even one of the drivers who helped create this era of racing — and won the 2016 Daytona 500 — has no problem with what Heim did.
“(Heim) made the correct move as the third-place guy,” Hamlin said on this week’s Actions Detrimental. “That is to stay in the high line and try to clear. Which he did. He cleared Chandler, and the race for first was on at that point.”
So please, if you ever find yourself in a position to win a superspeedway race on the final lap, I request this.
Be like Corey Heim.
Forget which logo’s on the front of your car.
Just go for it.
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.