Corey Heim jabs Layne Riggs after clean race in Nashville: ‘First time in four weeks he hasn’t tried to wreck someone’

The NASCAR Truck Series race at Nashville didn’t end the way Corey Heim imagined. He once again found himself battling with Layne Riggs. Ultimately, both Heim and Riggs ended up falling short to Rajah Caruth as the Spire Motorsports driver defended his lead down the stretch.

Of course, Corey Heim and Layne Riggs aren’t exactly friends. The two have had run-ins with each other going back to Late Model racing when they were younger. This season, that has taken a new twist, especially when Riggs tried to pass Heim for the lead at North Wilkesboro and wrecked him.

Since then, Heim has not been very friendly with Riggs. There have been a couple of verbal jabs thrown over the last few weeks. Tonight was no different.

On pit road, Corey Heim was asked about the late battle with Layne Riggs. A clean race between the two rivals, ultimately. He had a bit of a tongue-in-cheek answer.

“I mean, I think that’s a standard, to be honest with you,” Heim said of the duel with the 34 truck. “I think it’s the standard, not cleaning someone out when you’re next to them. So, it’s nice to see that he’s improving and not wrecking people. I think it’s the first time in four weeks like four weeks he hasn’t tried to wreck someone in the last lap. So, it’s good. Yeah, good, happy for him. For sure.”

Emotions run high after a close race like we saw tonight. Corey Heim in practice felt like he had the best truck he has had in a long time. He dominated the fastest lap, as well as lap averages across 5, 10, and 15 lap runs. He still came up short to the 71 truck.

Heim made a strong move with less than 10 laps to go in the race. It didn’t stick, and he couldn’t get by Rajah Caruth. The battle with Riggs didn’t help much, either.

Corey Heim fails to win from pole for fourth time in 2025

Twice this season, Corey Heim has started on the pole from his own qualifying efforts. Two more times he has started on pole due to the metric. Tonight was the fourth time he started out in the front of the field and he couldn’t get the win.

The last time that Heim won from the pole was Mid-Ohio in 2023. That isn’t to say he hasn’t been fantastic, he’s been absolutely dominant. Let’s not forget he has led over 800+ this season. Heim is still the favorite to win the championship this year, but there have been flaws at times.

Had Heim had better pit stops, maybe he would have ended up winning the race. Rajah Caruth’s pit crew was on it tonight, and no one could really match them. Without many cautions tonight, there weren’t a ton of opportunities on restarts.

Corey Heim is going to be fine. Tonight, he is licking his wounds a bit. Next week, he might win by 15 seconds.