Things went absolutely off the rails at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night, Sept. 26, after the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, a late-model stockcar race that usually brings pure racing glory. Instead, we got a full-blown brawl on pit road, with NASCAR driver Corey Heim right in the middle of it all after his car, and another, were essentially destroyed in a wild cool-down lap incident.
Cool Down? Nah, Total Mayhem
Caden Kvapil took the checkered flag and the Virginia Triple Crown, but nobody was talking about the winner after this one. All eyes were glued to what went down between Corey Heim and Treyton Lapcevich. These two battled aggressively for second place in a two-lap shootout, and it clearly didn’t end there. Lapcevich, apparently fuming about Heim’s racing, deliberately ran into the right side of Heim’s No. 22 Toyota into Turn 1 during the cool-down lap. Heim then retaliated, driving up over the left front end of Lapcevich’s No. 77 machine. Both cars were totally wiped out, just obliterated. Like, what even is a cool-down lap anymore?
The Pit Road Attack That Nobody Saw Coming
But it didn’t stop there. The on-track destruction was just the appetizer for the main event. Lapcevich looked like he was heading straight for Heim on pit road, ready to throw down, but his team owner, Chad Bryant, stepped in and stopped him. You’d think that’d be the end of it, right? Nope. Bryant’s crew then jumped Heim, attacking him near Martinsville’s iconic hot dog stand as he tried to leave pit road. Video footage shows at least three people punching Heim as he tried to get away. Deputies from the Henry County Sheriff’s Office eventually broke up the scuffle after about 20 seconds, and Heim headed to his hauler. When he was finally ready to roll out, he needed two deputies to escort him off the track. After leaving Martinsville, Heim posted a selfie with a thumbs up on X, with a caption that read, “Solid effort, but at least make it count next time.” Man, talk about an understatement after all that.
Heim’s High Stakes Season Just Got Even Wilder
Naturally, both drivers had their own version of events. Lapcevich admitted he “went up to his right side,” but then claimed Heim “gasses up” and “kills both of our cars.” Heim wasn’t having it. Before the fight, he said Lapcevich “pinned me onto the curb for some reason and just kept turning left,” causing his “right front hopped his left front, and destroyed a perfectly good race car. So, props to him for that. Really classy.” He added, “I really don’t understand, I mean, we’re racing for the lead and I can’t see what he sees. He just tried to destroy my car under cool-down laps and succeeded.” This whole thing is wild, especially considering the 24-year-old Heim is having an absolutely monster season. He’s already got two NASCAR Cup Series wins on a part-time schedule with Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing, including the Brickyard 400 where he was the second-youngest winner ever, and another at Naval Base Coronado. He’s the fastest driver to hit multiple Cup Series victories since 1972, doing it in his first 15 starts. Last year, he won the Truck Series championship with a record 12 wins, and this year he’s still running a mixed schedule, with another Truck Series win at Darlington in March and two top-five CARS Tour finishes. Heim is set to go full-time Cup Series next season with 23XI. He might have said, “I felt like tonight went well overall,” but after that chaos, you gotta wonder what’s next for this rising star.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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