Immediately after the race, Christian Eckes could not have been any more contrite about the incident that ended the race at Bristol for Corey Heim and his chance at a $500,000 Triple Truck Challenge sweep.
“That sucked for sure,” Eckes said. “They deserved a half million bucks and I took that away from them. Obviously, it wasn’t intentional to spin (him out) 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.”
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Eckes had led the most laps (132) and had led the field back to green but was nudged out of the way by Heim in Turn 3. Eckes then darted hard left and caught the right rear of the Tricon Garage No. 1 and trigger a wrecked that included Heim, Kaden Honeycutt and Layne Riggs.
“I wanted to get behind him to race him and maybe re-pay the favor,” Eckes conceded. “But no intention of getting into him and spinning him. I’m sure he was dragging the brake a little to keep me outside of him. Still, I shouldn’t have turned in until I knew I was completely clear. I feel terrible about that.”
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For his part, Heim was diplomatic and gave a one-time championship rival the benefit of the doubt.
“I gave Christian a nudge to get there and I believe he just misjudged it, trying to get back in line and do the same thing to me, which would have been totally fine considering I had just done it to him,” Heim said. “I assuming that he misjudged it so we’re good and crap happens and moving on from it.”
Heim won at Darlington to earn $50,000 and then last weekend at Rockingham to add $100,000 more. Winning this race would have netted the combined $500,000. There were numerous instances of hard racing between Heim and Eckes during their 2023 Truck Series campaigns, including an incident at Indianapolis Raceway Park, but Heim said they texted that night and there was no lingering bad blood.
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“I mean, he is probably going to text me and say ‘I misjudge it’ and I’m going to say I know and we’re good,” Heim said.
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In real-time, Eckes was told over the radio to ‘punt his ass’ and ‘I guess he wanted to go,’ to which the driver said ‘I can go just as hard.’
Again, Eckes expressed remorse after the race and Heim accepts it.
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“We’ve had one mix up and we discussed it the same night and we were totally fine,” Heim said. “And it’s probably going to be the same way today. I don’t think he meant to wreck me. Obviously, I’m frustrated being in the care center but I don’t think he would purposely do something like that.
“Honestly.”
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