Recently, Christian Eckes collided with Corey Heim while contesting for the lead and triggered a multi-car crash. While it indeed ruined Eckes' day, it jeopardized Heim's hope of winning half a million dollars, for which the former admitted his mistake.

"They deserved one half million bucks today, and I took that away from them," Chevrolet Silverado driver Eckes told Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. "So, obviously it wasn't intentional to spin them or even hit them."

Eckes made the statement after the Tennessee Army National Guard 250 race at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

"I was just trying to get in line and misjudged it," Eckes further explained about what happened. "He ended up wrecking pretty hard for them. I feel pretty small right now about that. I told him the decisions I've got to make better, and we'll go make them in Texas."

Notably, on Lap 180 of the race, Corey Heim took the lead of the race from Eckes, but the latter wanted to regain his lead, but in doing so, he hit Heim from behind and sent him hard against the wall.

The resultant crash quickly turned into a multi-car wreck and involved drivers such as Kaden Honeycutt, Layne Riggs, and Chase Briscoe, among many others. In the end, Corey Heim went on to finish the race in 30th place.

The crash cost Heim a chance to win three back-to-back wins, and the chance of winning a $500,000 Grand prize under the Triple Truck Challenge sweep scheme. While Eckes regretted the move, Heim perhaps has a different take.

Corey Heim Holds No Grudge Against Christian Eckes

After the race, Corey Heim shared his thoughts on the incident, and it seemed he had no hard feelings for the Chevrolet driver.

“I don’t think he did it on purpose or anything,” Heim said on FS1 from the care center. “You know, obviously, I had kind of said the lead was going to be super important to win the race. Just having track position and control. Then I kinda, they had a big mix up on who was starting the race, as far as the control truck."

This year, Heim is expanding his footprint. Running full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with TRICON Garage while also taking on a 12-race slate in the NASCAR Cup Series with 23XI Racing, Heim has wasted no time, already notching two wins early in the Truck season

Christopher Bell won the race as he came home ahead of Chandler Smith and Gio Ruggiero. Christian Eckes finished the race in fifth place. Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Aadesh Dhote