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AVONDALE, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 07: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 drivers, Corey Heim and Christian Eckes attend a fan event during the NASCAR Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway on November 07, 2024 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
NASCAR reviewed the late-race crash between Christian Eckes and Corey Heim<\/a> and chose not to issue a penalty<\/a> after Friday night\u2019s race at Bristol Motor Speedway<\/a>. The incident occurred on Lap 180 of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.<\/p>\n Corey Heim led the race at the time and was in position to win the $500,000 Triple Truck Challenge bonus. Eckes followed closely behind and made contact with Heim\u2019s right rear exiting Turn 4.<\/p>\n The contact sent Heim into the outside wall, triggering a multi-truck crash. Several trucks were involved, and officials stopped the race with a red flag. Heim\u2019s chance to win ended at that moment.<\/p>\n NASCAR reviewed all available footage, including broadcast angles and in-house cameras, before reaching a final decision. Officials also spoke with both drivers after the race as part of the review process.<\/p>\n Contact Between Eckes and Heim Ends Race Lead<\/p>\n Eckes ran directly behind Heim as they exited Turn 4. His truck made contact with Heim\u2019s right-rear corner. The impact turned Heim into the wall and caused a chain reaction behind them. Multiple trucks sustained damage as the incident unfolded. The race stopped to allow track crews to clear the scene.<\/p>\n After the race, Eckes addressed the incident, saying he did not intend to make contact.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, it wasn\u2019t intentional to spin him or even hit him. I was just trying to get in line and misjudged it, and he ended up wrecking pretty hard. I feel pretty small right now about that. I wanted to get behind him to race him and maybe repay the favor, but obviously, had no intention of getting into him and spinning him like that. Just feel terrible about that, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat sucks, for sure. They deserve to win half a million bucks<\/a> today, and I took that away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n Corey Heim Responds and Describes the Incident<\/p>\n Heim explained his view of the contact and said he believed it came from a misjudgment rather than intent. He noted that both drivers had made light contact earlier during the restart sequence.<\/p>\n \u201cJust got hooked a little bit there. I think I was trying to maintain the lead. Everyone kind of knew, based on the way the race was playing out, that we needed to lead, so kind of gave Christian a nudge to get that, and I believe he just misjudged it trying to get back in line and do the same to me, which would have been totally fine considering I\u2019d just done it to him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGiving him the benefit of the doubt that he misjudged it, I think I\u2019m all good. It\u2019s just kind of, you know, crap happens, and kind of move on from it.\u201d<\/p>\n NASCAR Reviews Footage and Closes the Case<\/p>\n NASCAR officials<\/a> reviewed video from several sources before making a decision. Truck Series managing director Seth Kramlich and vice president of race communications Mike Forde<\/a> led the review.<\/p>\n Forde explained what officials saw during the process.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a camera in Turn 1 that was looking at the trucks that was, \u2018Oh, that looked a little worse than the broadcast and the above angle. From above and back, it didn\u2019t look that bad. In Turn 1 (camera), it looked like he missed it way worse than the above or behind view. I\u2019m not saying that it looked like he did it intentionally, it just looked like he got more of (Heim\u2019s) truck than I realized at first glance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs we have in the past, any time you\u2019re talking about anything that remotely smells of a right-rear hook, we take that pretty seriously. So Seth did take it seriously. After that review, we decided not to penalize.\u201d<\/p>\n NASCAR confirmed there will be no fines, points penalties, or suspensions. Officials will meet with Eckes again before the next race. The incident remains closed following the review.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDogli Wilberforce<\/a> is a writer covering NASCAR, Formula 1, and the IndyCar Series for Heavy Sports. He has also written for Sportsnaut, FanSided, Total Apex Sports, and Last Word on Sports. Wilberforce focuses on the NASCAR Cup Series, breaking down news, driver stories, and key moments with a clear, fast, and engaging style. His work connects headlines to context, helping readers understand what matters most in the sport. More about Dogli Wilberforce<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty AVONDALE, ARIZONA – NOVEMBER 07: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 drivers, Corey Heim and Christian Eckes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-606106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}