BRISTOL, Tenn.— After winning the first two races of the Triple Truck Challenge at Darlington Raceway and Rockingham Speedway, Corey Heim was in contention to win $500,000 at Bristol Motor Speedway if he scored his third consecutive win. It was a slow start for the 23XI Racing development driver, but in the final stage, he was up front battling with Christian Eckes, who had dominated most of the night.
On lap 179, Eckes was moved out of the groove by Heim through turns 3 and 4 in a battle for the lead. Eckes then made contact with Heim in turn 1, spinning him around and collecting his TRICON Garage teammate Kaden Honeycutt. Eckes was the only one of the three to continue and finished in fifth.
After being evaluated and released from the care center, both TRICON drivers gave their perspectives of the wreck, with Honeycutt believing it was past issues between the two that boiled over on the track.
“It’s definitely the No. 91 (Eckes) getting into the No. 1 (Heim),” Honeycutt said. “I really don’t know what in the world those two were doing, but it trickled down to us and other trucks. …
“Those two raced really hard when they were full-time together. It unfortunately trickled down to us. They just got into it and wrecked a really good truck.”
While Honeycutt saw the contact occur, he did not put blame on either driver, Heim specifically, but rather the type of racing before the wreck happened.
“I don’t think it was Heim’s fault — I think they both could have done things differently to not have that situation escalate with so many laps left,” Honeycutt added. “I understand if he [Eckes] was frustrated about getting hit, but I don’t think it was worth doing that and wrecking everybody.”
Heim felt it was more equal regardless of the intent from Eckes. He was also using his bumper and understood that it was fair game.
“It’s a coincidence that we’re both running up front, and track position is the name of the game; we’re playing bumper tag to get that,” Heim said. “I don’t think he meant to wreck me. I don’t think he’d do something like that, honestly.”
When asked if he was frustrated in general rather than at anyone, Heim simply said, “correct.”
Eckes took blame for the wreck in his post-race interview with reporters.
“They deserved to win half a million bucks today, and I took that away from them,” Eckes said.
While Eckes said that he misjudged his entry into the turn and that the intention wasn’t to wreck him, Eckes did say that due to previous contact from Heim, he would’ve repaid the favor after getting back in line on the bottom.
“I wanted to get behind him to race him, maybe repay the favor,” Eckes explained. “I obviously had no intention of getting into them and spinning them like that. Just feel terrible about that, for sure.”
Eckes does have past history with Heim, most notably in a run-in at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park two years ago that gave Heim a cut tire and ended with a post-race conversation on pit road. But Eckes was adamant that that past is behind them.
“Listen, I have a ton of respect for Corey and what he’s able to do,” Eckes continued. “I feel like he has the same, it’s never gotten to this point. Like I said, it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t like I was trying to kill him down there.
“Still, I shouldn’t be making those mistakes.”
Classy interview by Heim. Can’t wait for him to get his well deserved Cup ride.
Now Heim knows exactly how Enfinger felt at Phoenix in 2024, when Heim deliberately wrecked Hocevar with 2 laps to go, costing Enfinger the Championship.
Exactly! And as far as I know, Heim never even apologized for robbing Enfinger of the the championship.