A multi-truck crash with 70 laps remaining in Bristol Motor Speedway’s Tennessee Army National Guard 250 dashed Corey Heim’s hopes of collecting the third leg of the Triple Truck Challenge and a bonus totaling $500,000.
Heim won at Darlington, the first race in the Challenge, which paid a $50,000 bonus. He then collected $150,000 when he won at Rockingham, the second event in the bonus program. If he had claimed the victory at Bristol, he would have received $350,000 for winning all three races in the Triple Truck Challenge for a $500,000 total. Instead, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Chandler Smith, who finished second to winner Christopher Bell, received the $50,000 bonus.
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Heim’s victory bid in Friday night’s 250-lap race ended while he and Christian Eckes were dueling for the lead on lap 180. Heim passed Eckes on the frontstretch. When Eckes moved up in turn one, he hadn’t cleared Heim and he clipped the Toyota driver, spinning him up the track and into the wall backward. Heim collected victory contenders Layne Riggs and TRICON Garage teammate Kaden Honeycutt who were in the outside lane. The race was halted for 11 minutes 51 seconds while the track was cleared.
After leaving the infield care center, Heim said he didn’t believe Eckes turned him intentionally.
“Obviously, I kind of sent him in (to the turn),” Heim said. “I think the lead was going to be super important to win the race, just having track position and control. They had a big mix up on who was starting the race as far as the control truck. I had an issue with my transmission sticking in gears.
“I had to pack a little bit of air in there to get him (Eckes) out of the way. I got him free. I think he was just trying to get behind me and then shipped me, which would have been totally fine, because I did it to him. He just misjudged it. I’ve been racing him for a long time, and I don’t think he would do that on purpose, so we are all good.”
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Honeycutt was not as forgiving.
“Two guys history affecting everyone else’s race,” said an angry Honeycutt, who finished 31st. “We had 70-something laps to go, had plenty of time. We could have just raced. I know Corey (Heim) got into him a couple of times. That’s just dumb.”
Riggs finished 22nd, one lap down, in the 36-truck field.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.