Corey Heim left fuming at Layne Riggs; Chandler Smith wins Trucks Wilkesboro

Corey Heim and Layne Riggs took the white flag running 1-2 but neither would win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at North Wilkesboro on Saturday afternoon.

Riggs, who restarted third, drive deep into Turn 1 and drifted up the corner into Heim, who spun out on corner entry. The stalled momentum allowed Chandler Smith to drive by both and capture his second win of the season.

😳🏁 COREY HEIM GOES AROUND. CHANDLER SMITH WINS AT NORTH WILKESBORO.#NASCARonFS1 | @NASCAR_Trucks pic.twitter.com/GZJRR7l3Ex

Meanwhile, Heim was left furious at what he perceived as a breach of racing etiquette by Riggs. As soon as the race ended, Heim keyed up over the radio and said, ‘it’s every fucking week with that guy’ (and) ‘it’s been the same thing since Late Models.’

Heim then walked to the backstretch portion of pit road, not realizing that Riggs was parked on the frontstretch portion. He made his way over to Riggs and told him how he felt about it.

“Look in the mirror and figure out this is why no one likes you. You’re racing like a fucking idiot. Calm down or else someone’s going to take care of you.”

Heim then walked away before Riggs could say anything back. He did speak to the NASCAR Radio Network.

“Just scum racing on his part,” Heim said. “Did it to me earlier in the race and didn’t learn his lesson. I’ve raced him so clean throughout my years. I just continuously get used up by him.”

If Riggs had been given the chance to respond, he says he was going to tell Heim that he races for himself and his Front Row Motorsports crew.

“I can only see this much when you’re in a race car,” he said while holding his head in his hands to express reduced vision. “I feel like it was the right move from the seat. I may go back and look at it and have a different feeling but it’s hard to speculate right here, right now.”

As for the perception that he’s developing a reputation, Riggs shrugged that notion off too. 

“If I have a reputation of going for wins, I‘m not going to regret that at all,” he said. “I came from short track racing last lap battles and that’s what this is made for. This wasn’t like Martinsville. It’s not like what we’ve seen there. It was a strong move and I thought it was going to pay off and it didn’t.”

As for their shared history …

“Yeah, we’ve raced for a long time, when he was racing for Lee Pulliam,” Riggs said. “We’ve always had hard battles. We had a bit of a rivalry in Late Models and we’re racing hard still here. It’s to each their own how you feel about it, but I can’t go back and change it.”

Smith wouldn’t change it either.

“I did everything wrong to be honest with you,” Smith said of the final restart. “The 11 cleared me right off the lip and my teammate cleared me off 2. Honestly, going down the backstretch, I thought I was just going to let these two race it out now.

“The 34 (Riggs) let me go when I had a tire advantage. If I let him go here, and an opportunity presents itself to go win, I’ll take it. It was the right thing to do. I got a decent run into 3 and 4, got to a half length back and they went into 1, the seas parted and here we are.”

Smith said the track was ‘super slick’ into 1 and that Riggs kept chasing it up the track until Heim ran out of room for both of them to go.

“I’m not saying it because he’s my teammate and I won the race because he sent it in there, trying to run him a little bit and I would have done the same,” Smith said. “I personally didn’t see anything egregious but at the same time, I had a really early apex in the corner.”

Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum and Ty Majeski completed the top five. Daniel Hemric, Gio Ruggiero, Kaden Honeycutt, Kyle Busch and Sammy Smith were the top 10. Heim was scored 17th after the dust settled.

Results

1. Chandler Smith
2. Layne Riggs
3. Tyler Ankru
4. Daniel Hemric
5. Grant Enfinger
6. Ty Majeski
7. Gio Ruggiero
8. Kaden Honeycutt
9. Kyle Busch
10. Sammy Smith
11. Tanner Gray
12. Jake Garcia
13. Luke Baldwin
14. Stewart Friesen
15. Rajah Caruth
16. Connor Mosack
17. Corey Heim
18. Matt Crafton
19. Patrick Emerling
20. Jack Wood
21. Toni Breidinger
22. Brent Crews
23. Ben Rhodes
24. Andres Perez de Lara
25. Matt Mills
26. Dawson Sutton
27. Conner Jones
28. Spencer Boyd
29. Frankie Muniz
30. Jayson Alexander
31. Tyler Tomassi
32. Ryan Roulette
33. Derek White
34. Norm Benning