Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 3, 2023; Avondale, Arizona, USA; NASCAR Truck Series drivers Carson Hocevar (left) and Corey Heim are introduced to the crowd prior to the Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway.
In a result that nobody saw coming, 23-year-old part-time driver Corey Heim picked up his first career NASCAR Cup Series win on Sunday at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.
However, the win didn’t come without a little bit of controversy.
Not only did Heim have an incident with teammate Tyler Reddick, but he also spun out longtime rival Carson Hocevar while racing in the top five late in the race.
Hocevar spins and collects Chastain! pic.twitter.com/gj8u2ahkyq
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 21, 2026
Heim and Hocevar have had beef for years, dating back to 2023 when they were racing for the Truck Series championship and took one another out.
This year, Hocevar has blossomed into a star for Spire Motorsports, picking up his first win at Talladega and even shooting his shot with Kay Adams. Meanwhile, Heim is driving part-time for Michael Jordan’s 23XI race team and recently announced he’d be joining full-time in 2027.
After the race, Hocevar immediately asked Heim’s boss, Denny Hamlin, for Heim’s phone number. He reached out later in the week, and now we know exactly what he said.
Carson Hocevar Was Pretty Chill About The Corey Heim Incident
While you’d expect Hocevar to be angry with Heim, especially when you consider the former came into the race in the top-10 in points, it turns out that wasn’t the case.
In fact, Hocevar was actually pretty chill.
“Well, first of all, he already had my phone number,” Heim said in an interview with Eric Estepp. “I don’t know why he needed it. He texted me after the race, and there’s a string of text messages years before that.
“But anyway, he was really cool about it. He said, ‘I’ve had that coming for several years now,’ and ‘congrats, enjoy it,’ because obviously he just won his first race a couple of months ago. He said it’s a special feeling and to enjoy it. “I said, ‘Thanks, fair enough,’ and that was it.”
Hocevar is probably the sport’s biggest antagonist these days, and he’s well aware of it. So it’s nice to see that he understands when these sorts of things happen to him. That being said, he and Heim are a big part of the future of the series, and it’s not farfetched to say this isn’t the last on-track incident involving the two.