
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.
š³š COREY HEIM GOES AROUND. CHANDLER SMITH WINS AT NORTH WILKESBORO.#NASCARonFS1 | @NASCAR_Trucks pic.twitter.com/GZJRR7l3Ex
ā FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 17, 2025
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, āitās every fucking week with that guyā (and) āitās been the same thing since Late Models.ā
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.
āLook in the mirror and figure out this is why no one likes you. Youāre racing like a fucking idiot. Calm down or else someoneās going to take care of you.ā
Heim then walked away before Riggs could say anything back. He did speak to the NASCAR Radio Network.
āJust scum racing on his part,ā Heim said. āDid it to me earlier in the race and didnāt learn his lesson. Iāve raced him so clean throughout my years. I just continuously get used up by him.ā
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.
āI can only see this much when youāre in a race car,ā he said while holding his head in his hands to express reduced vision. āI feel like it was the right move from the seat. I may go back and look at it and have a different feeling but itās hard to speculate right here, right now.ā
As for the perception that heās developing a reputation, Riggs shrugged that notion off too.Ā
āIf I have a reputation of going for wins, Iām not going to regret that at all,ā he said. āI came from short track racing last lap battles and thatās what this is made for. This wasnāt like Martinsville. Itās not like what weāve seen there. It was a strong move and I thought it was going to pay off and it didnāt.ā
As for their shared history ā¦
āYeah, weāve raced for a long time, when he was racing for Lee Pulliam,ā Riggs said. āWeāve always had hard battles. We had a bit of a rivalry in Late Models and weāre racing hard still here. Itās to each their own how you feel about it, but I canāt go back and change it.ā
Smith wouldnāt change it either.
āI did everything wrong to be honest with you,ā Smith said of the final restart. āThe 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.
āThe 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, Iāll 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.ā
Smith said the track was āsuper slickā into 1 and that Riggs kept chasing it up the track until Heim ran out of room for both of them to go.
āIām not saying it because heās 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,ā Smith said. āI personally didnāt see anything egregious but at the same time, I had a really early apex in the corner.ā
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
- Chandler Smith
- Layne Riggs
- Tyler Ankru
- Daniel Hemric
- Grant Enfinger
- Ty Majeski
- Gio Ruggiero
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Kyle Busch
- Sammy Smith
- Tanner Gray
- Jake Garcia
- Luke Baldwin
- Stewart Friesen
- Rajah Caruth
- Connor Mosack
- Corey Heim
- Matt Crafton
- Patrick Emerling
- Jack Wood
- Toni Breidinger
- Brent Crews
- Ben Rhodes
- Andres Perez de Lara
- Matt Mills
- Dawson Sutton
- Conner Jones
- Spencer Boyd
- Frankie Muniz
- Jayson Alexander
- Tyler Tomassi
- Ryan Roulette
- Derek White
- Norm Benning
