Corey Heim doesn’t stick to Toyota’s line, almost wins in Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. — In his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start at his home track Saturday night (Sept. 7), Corey Heim opted for the win rather than help his manufacturer.

The Sam Hunt Racing Toyota driver was not behind fellow Toyota driver Chandler Smith as he approached the white flag for the Focused Health 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. As Smith ran under leader Austin Hill, Heim followed Hill’s Chevrolet, moving Smith to the back of the top five.

“It was in my best interest to stay up high,” Heim said. “We didn’t have a lot of speed today, but we had a lot of leads. So I wanted to try to get to the top of the No. 21, and that’s what happened.”

Entering Turn 1 on the final lap, Heim ran around the outside of Hill, but the No. 21 car pushed Heim into the outside wall. Hill won the race, Smith finished fourth and Heim fifth, with three Georgia drivers in the top five.

“He (Hill) just threw me out there, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have done the exact same thing if I was in his shoes,” Heim said. “That’s just part of superspeedway racing. You’ve got to be aggressive and take advantage of your opportunities. We put ourselves in a really good spot there, it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Smith was devastated by how the final laps unfolded.

“I’m speechless, to be honest,” Smith said. “I could have done a lot of different things. I could have been more selfish when I got the go-ahead and got down there and covered it up and controlled the race for sure.

“But I tried to be a good teammate, but today, as usual, it didn’t pay off.”

Heim’s decision to go it alone rather than help his teammate comes in the wake of criticism that Chevrolet driver Parker Retzlaff faced for pushing Harrison Burton’s Ford to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway instead of Kyle Busch’s Chevrolet.

When NBC Sports asked Heim if he was worried about repercussions from Toyota, he replied, “I might talk to him about when to make that move, but that’s it.”