It has been nearly a week since the Craftsman Truck Series championship-deciding race at Phoenix Raceway, but that doesn't mean there aren't implications for what happened during the race. NASCAR has announced punishment for Corey Heim, the driver of the No. 11 Toyota for TriCon Garage.
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NEWS: CRAFTSMAN Truck Series driver Corey Heim has been assessed a behavioral penalty for a violation of the NASCAR Member Code of Conduct at Phoenix Raceway.
The penalty is $12,500 and the loss of 25 driver points. pic.twitter.com/vjqYUMTQLr
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) November 8, 2023
Heim wrecked fellow Championship Four driver Carson Hocevar after the two made contact earlier in the race that sent Heim spinning.
It was an incident that Hocevar later apologized for, and as the video showed, it wasn't as extreme as what Heim eventually did to him in return.
Heim didn't appear to be one bit sorry for wrecking Hocevar, nor was he sorry that it ultimately affected the outcome of the championship, as it also affected the race for the win between Grant Enfinger and Ben Rhodes.
As a result of the incident, NASCAR fined Heim $12,500 and docked him 25 points as reported by Bob Pockrass from Fox Sports.
The loss of 25 points dropped the Heim from his third-place points finish to fourth behind Hocevar.Enfinger led the championship with three laps to go when the incident happened. After four overtime restarts, Rhodes ended up on top. While Heim won't likely admit that he purposely wrecked Hocevar, the punishment seems fitting because the crash affected the championship.
The accident looked eerily similar to one involving Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer in 2012 at the same venue, Phoenix Raceway.
NASCAR VP of Competition Elton Sawyer sternly addressed the issue in his appearance on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, and he didn't hold back in warning that organization will dig deep into making sure that something like that never happens again, especially in a championship deciding race.
🗣️ “We will dig into that deeper in the weeks to come on how we will make sure that never happens again.”
🚛 #NASCAR SVP of Competition Elton Sawyer discussed the end to the @NASCAR_Trucks Series season at Phoenix.
💭 “It takes zero talent to just go in there and wreck people.” pic.twitter.com/vwt9QOBeu7
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) November 9, 2023
"We will dig deeper into that in the weeks to come on how we will make that never happens again," Sawyer said. "It takes zero talent to just go in there and wreck people."
Not that Heim didn't have an issue with Hocevar from their earlier contact but it looked more like an innocent racing mistake than a premeditated move to take out a competitor, which is what Heim's move looks like, and that has no place on the racetrack.
