RIDGEWAY, Va. — Three trucks – Corey Heim, Kaden Honeycutt and Ty Majeski -were the class of the field in Friday’s (March 28) NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
All three of them got taken out, one way or another.
For much of the night, it looked like Heim was going to cruise to yet another dominant victory that we’ve become accustomed to seeing. He swept the stages and led the first 106 laps from the pole, and it only took 17 laps for him to retake the lead after pitting for tires at the halfway point.
With 50 to go, he had cruised out to a two-second advantage over Majeski, and he was on his way to redemption after a heartbreaking defeat at Homestead-Miami Speedway the week prior.
But a series of cautions regrouped the field for a multitude of restarts, and suddenly, all hell broke loose.
With 34 to go, Honeycutt and Heim were fighting side-by-side, door-to-door, tooth-and-nail on a restart, only for contact between the two to cut down Heim’s left rear tire. The No. 11 truck lost control into the turn 1 wall, and the driver that had led nearly 75% of the race was out of the running.
We'll restart with less than 30 to go after this incident involving the No. 11. pic.twitter.com/bAxo6XC6OA
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) March 29, 2025
“[Honeycutt] used me up a little bit in [turns] 1 and 2 and then just kind of doored me out of 4 and cut down my left rear,” Heim said post-race. “I don’t think it was anything super malicious on his end. I don’t think he intended to do it, but intention’s one thing and result is another, I guess. Collaterally it wrecked us with the damage there.
“I’m not super pleased about it, but I’ve seen worse. I’ve seen guys just flat out get dumped here, I’d be a little angrier about that. I don’t think he intended to wreck me by any means, but I would have like to have been cut a little bit of room, especially with like 35 to go. I get if it’s overtime or something, but yeah, we got 35 laps to go — just a while around this place. Just unfortunate.”
It was racing for both the lead and control of the race, and Honeycutt was apologetic both post-race and over the radio for the contact.
“We were just racing hard,” Honeycutt told Frontstretch. “… I definitely want to talk to him about it, see what he says. I really don’t want to create an enemy like him, because he’s the one to race for a championship. I want to earn his respect, and I hate that we couldn’t just race it out there.”
With Heim relegated to 25th place, Honeycutt took over the lead for the first time all night. Honeycutt led a total of 20 laps and rose to the challenge with his first Truck win on the line, but on a restart with 15 laps to go, he missed the exit of turn 4 and allowed Majeski to get to his inside.
“I was struggling to fire off there,” Honeycutt said. “I was definitely on the free side, and I tried to make adjustments in the truck to not have that happen and unfortunately, I went down to turn 3 and just got a little free, and [Ty] was there to get to me.
“I felt like if we were side-by-side off of [turn] 2, we would’ve cleared him back.”
But the battle never reached that point, as Majeski overcooked the entry to turn 1 and sent both of them spinning out of contention.
The leaders make contact and go around!! 😱 pic.twitter.com/o0G20JR19y
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) March 29, 2025
“Unfortunately, he wheel hopped,” Honeycutt continued. “It’s hard racing at Martinsville, man. There’s nothing you can really do about it; me and him want it just as bad, and I’m definitely not mad at him for it. There are a million races I race around here and have incidents like this, so I’m not the only one that’s had this happen to me.”
Heim rebounded from his damage to finish sixth, while Majeski and Honeycutt dropped to 13th and 26th, respectively. They each had a chance at winning the coveted grandfather clock on Friday night, but they’ll instead the spend the next two weeks until Bristol wondering what could’ve been.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf