Kaden Honeycutt did not appreciate Corey Heim throwing two blocks on him to win the Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
Honeycutt, driving the Tricon Garage No. 11 that Heim took to the championship last year and 23 victories across the past three seasons, made several runs at Heim but couldn’t find a path to the win.
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On the final lap, Heim blocked low and then shaded right across Honeycutt’s nose, and just beat his teammate to the line. Honeycutt said that if it were any other truck than one owned by David Gilliland and Johnny Gray, it would have been a different result.
“I was there,” Honeycutt said. “So yeah, thank God it was a company truck. I definitely wouldn’t have lifted in that situation. It just sucks. I felt like I’ve given so many away this year and I think that’s what’s angering me the most for sure. Just unfortunate.”
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When asked in the winner’s press conference, Heim was short and blunt.
“Get thicker skin and deal with it,” Heim said. “That’s my advice to him.”
Honeycutt also felt like Heim should have drafted with him and pulled away from Carson Hocevar and the Front Row Motorsports cars and then raced it out amongst themselves.
“Yeah, he had no problem working with Bell in the second stage, pull away and then he gets to me and just drives right by me,” Honeycutt said. “So yeah, just definitely unfortunate, but it’s a good race for our team. Good points … I’m just frustrated. We just need to work together better. That’s really, that’s all there is to it.”
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Heim wasn’t buying that either.
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“I thought we worked pretty well together to get a gap,” Heim said. “Me and Bell, in the first two stages, maybe just stage two, we worked really well together. We kind of talked pre-race, thought our trucks were good enough to link up and sort of just drive by guys. I thought our trucks just had the best center speed and the best handling on longer runs. So when me and Bell talked about it, we basically said, if we found each other, let’s just stay in line and push each other and try to get clear of whoever’s third on back. We were able to accomplish that and I lost him there in stage three.
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“I don’t know if he had a bad stop or what happened to him, but I was kind of depending on that to help us maintain the lead. In case guys were super aggressive and wanted to dice it up for the lead, but I thought us and the 11 worked pretty well together for the last five laps.”
Heim even when back and said if Honeycutt had wrecked him off the block, he would have understood it.
“But when it’s the white flag, you got to do what you got to do at that point,” Heim said. “I mean, if he wrecked me by me blocking him, then that’s my fault and that’s fine. It is what it is. But no, I thought us in the 62 and us in the 11 worked really well together when we were trying to maintain the lead there.”
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