Layne Riggs responds to criticism from Corey Heim after late battle in Truck Series race at Nashville

At the end of the NASCAR Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, Corey Heim and Layne Riggs duked it out again. The two drivers have forged quite a rivalry this season in multiple late-race run-ins.

Layne Riggs has put himself out there this year. He went toe-to-toe with Kyle Larson and Carson Hocevar in the Truck Series. He ended up wrecking Heim at North Wilkesboro while racing for the lead.

That’s not something that Heim has forgotten. In fact, Heim had a very sarcastic response when asked about the late-race battle with Riggs for P2 at Nashville. He said it was the “First time in four weeks he hasn’t tried to wreck someone.”

Layne Riggs spoke to 5GOATs after the race on pit road after his third straight top-five finish. He responded to the comments from Heim and tried his best to take the high road.

“Yeah, I hate the words ‘cleaning out.’ That sounds kind of like a jab, but it was good there racing with him at the end, and you know, I do feel like I’m learning,” Riggs explained. “I’m getting better every weekend and just felt really, really calm behind the wheel today. I had a great truck and just kind of didn’t have the luck we needed on pit road today. Didn’t execute like we needed to. So, we got the absolute best that we could out of the pit stops that we had today on pit road.”

There is no love lost between these two drivers. And you know what, NASCAR fans are only going to win because of it. Rivalries are what make this sport great, and if you ask me, Corey Heim and Layne Riggs are both future Cup Series drivers. This could be a decade-plus-long back-and-forth between the two.

After all, this has already been a multi-year feud. Corey Heim said before that it goes back to the two racing Late Models against each other. Now, it’s the Truck Series.

Layne Riggs holds up Corey Heim as Rajah Caruth wins

Now, Layne Riggs didn’t do anything wrong. So, don’t get ahead of me here. However, it isn’t crazy to say that the battle for second helped Rajah Caruth stay in the lead as he aero-blocked and defended his position on track.

We don’t talk about dirty air as much in the Truck Series. Tonight, it was a factor. Caruth knew it and used it to his advantage. He is now a two-time winner in the Truck Series.

With the win, Caruth puts himself firmly into the playoffs. There are a couple of other intermediate tracks on the schedule in the next two weeks. Michigan and Pocono could give Caruth the opportunity to win multiple races in the span of three weeks. If Corey Heim and Layne Riggs keep up their bitter rivalry, it might not be as hard as you think.

Caruth, Heim, and Riggs led all but one lap of this race tonight. Caruth had a race-high 61 laps out front. Heim followed with 58. Riggs led the race for 30 laps. It was another fun edition of the Truck Series tonight. Tomorrow, we do it all again in the Xfinity Series.