Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway was a reminder of a stellar season-long heavyweight fight between Corey Heim and Christian Eckes, which played out throughout much of 2024.
Things are a bit different now, with Heim being a part-timer in the Truck Series (and being a part-time Cup Series driver), while Eckes is with McAnally-Hilgemann Racing again, but in a different truck after a season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
But, there were times during Friday’s 250-lapper when, if you squinted hard, you couldn’t quite tell the difference… and, of course, that ended in fireworks, when a battle for the lead went really, really wrong.
Heim, behind the wheel of the No. 1 CELSIUS Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for TRICON Garage this weekend at Bristol, was fighting for the lead with Eckes with 70 laps remaining, when the two exchanged blows.
First, it was Heim into the rear of the No. 91 Columbia Bank Chevrolet Silverado RST in Turn 3, moving the former Bristol winner up the racetrack. Still, then, as the leaders got back to Turn 1, it was Eckes who made contact with the right-rear of the No. 1, spinning him around and hard into the outside SAFER Barrier, collecting several others.
At first glance, the incident looks intentional — with the idea that Eckes chose to “get even” with Heim because the defending Truck Series champion shoved him up the racetrack moments earlier. But, the more you look at the incident, the more you can see that maybe the McAnally-Hilgemann Racing driver misjudged an attempt to try and get to the bottom.
Heim and Eckes, the two parties involved in the incident, both agree. Not intentional.
“I don’t think he did it on purpose or anything,” Heim said after exiting the infield care center. “I think the lead was super important to win the race, just having track position and control. Then they had a mix-up on who was starting the race, as far as the control truck. I had an issue with my transmission sticking in gears, and I had to pack a little bit of air. I don’t think I touched him to get him out of the way. He was already free; I just packed some air and got him free. I think he was trying to get behind me and ship me, which would have been fine because I did it to him. Just misjudged it.”
“I’ve been racing him for a long time, and I don’t think he would do that on purpose, so it’s all good.”
Just to pour some more salt onto the wound, Corey Heim, after winning at Darlington and Rockingham, was in contention for the never-before-won $500,000 bonus that would be awarded to a driver who wins all three Triple Truck Challenge events.
It’s something that weighed heavily on the mind of Christian Eckes post-race, even after finishing inside the top-five.
“It sucked, for sure,” Eckes said. “They deserved to win half a million bucks today, and I took that away from them. Obviously, it wasn’t 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 from it, so feeling pretty small right now about that.”
That wreck allowed NASCAR Cup Series regular Christopher Bell to drive through to the front row, with his No. 62 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, and eventually, put his Halmar Friesen Racing entry into Victory Lane.
Eckes was able to continue after the incident and finished fifth, launching him inside the top-five in points. Heim, on the other hand, finished a dismal 30th, dropping to third in points.
The wreck also took out Kaden Honeycutt, a frontrunner all evening, who wasn’t terribly pleased about the things that unfolded on track.
“Two guys’ history affecting everyone else’s race,” Honeycutt said after exiting the care center. “Just so stupid. 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, but that’s just dumb to wreck four or five trucks that were really good.”
As they say… It’s Bristol Baby…
