Corey Heim has been issued a behavioral penalty from NASCAR following his on-track actions during the season-finale Craftsman 150 at Phoenix Raceway that occurred last Friday, November 3.
The issue stemming from Heim’s actions at Phoenix occurred with 31 laps remaining after the 21-year-old Heim from Marietta, Georgia, who had overtaken title contender Carson Hocevar a lap earlier, was hit by Hocevar in between Turns 1 and 2 causing Heim to spin and collect Stewart Friesen in the process. While Friesen hit the outside wall and damaged his truck, Heim managed to keep his No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro off the wall and proceed without sustaining any significant damage.
Then with four laps remaining, Heim, who had rallied his way up to eighth place, returned the favor after he veered to the right in front of Hocevar, who was gaining ground of him, and sent both into the outside wall entering the backstretch. The incident damaged Hocevar’s truck and eliminated him from further contention, where he ended up 29th, while Heim, who was then hit by a spinning teammate Taylor Gray, managed to finish the finale in 18th place.
Despite denying any actions of retaliation during his post-race interview, NASCAR reviewed and determined that Heim had violated Sections 4.4.B & D, which refers to the Member Code of Conduct from NASCAR’s Rule Book.
As a result, Heim was fined $12,500 and docked 25 points in the driver’s standings. He had initially concluded the 2023 Truck Series season in third place in the final standings by virtue of being the third-highest-finishing title contender on the track. The penalty, however, dropped Heim to fourth place in the final standings behind the new third-place finisher, Hocevar. Ben Rhodes would claim his second series championship by finishing in fifth place on the track, one spot ahead of title contender Grant Enfinger.
The 2023 Truck Series season marked Heim’s first full-time campaign in the series, where he joined TRICON Garage after spending the previous season with Kyle Busch Motorsports and winning two races and the 2022 Rookie-of-the-Year title. Throughout the 2023 season, Heim achieved the regular-season championship, three victories, four poles, 12 top-five results, 19 top-10 results, 611 laps led and an average-finishing result of 6.8 throughout the 23-race schedule.
Heim is slated to return to TRICON Garage and continue to pilot the team’s No. 11 entry for the 2024 Craftsman Truck Series season as he will bid for both another Championship 4 run and the series’ title.
Heim’s 2024 Truck Series season is slated to commence at Daytona International Speedway for the season-opening Fresh from Florida 250, which will occur on February 16 at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
