After Corey Heim's Brickyard 400 victory made him the first driver since A.J. Foyt in 1965 to win twice within the first 15 starts of his NASCAR Cup Series career, one might have expected a bit more attention on the achievement itself, rather than what amounted to an irrelevant moment of the race involving the guy who finished ninth.
It's no secret that Heim and Carson Hocevar have absolutely no love for one another, a feud that dates back to their days in the Craftsman Truck Series, although the discrepancy in their Truck Series statistics (and now their Cup Series statistics) makes one question whether the feud actually does have the potential to become the one true rivalry NASCAR fans have been longing for.
After Heim held off Hocevar on old tires before making a pit stop, Hocevar flipped him off out the window of his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. Ironically, he had been told that the battle with the driver of the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota was not for the race win.
Heim then went on to win the race.
Hocevar, who started on pole, finished ninth, giving Heim twice as many Cup Series victories as Hocevar in less than one-seventh of the number of starts.
And yet all anybody wanted to talk about after the race was Hocevar, leading to a slew of questions about him being directed at the race winner following a historic performance.
"Honestly, as long as I’m the one who's holding up the trophy, I don’t really mind talking about anything at that point," Heim admitted to Beyond the Flag. "Of course, I’d like to talk about the win, but if it’s something that could have affected the win or built up to it, I’m fine with that. I don’t mind anybody asking any questions they want to."
Team owner Denny Hamlin even spoke about the situation after the race on his Actions Detrimental podcast, referring to Heim as Hocevar's "daddy" and stating that "[Heim] owns him".
Hamlin stated that Hocevar does "dumb s*** just to get people to talk about him when he finishes in ninth place", also noting that he's playing "chess not checkers" since it actually seems to work.
And because it works, Heim called out the media during the post-race press conference, stating that "You guys love talking about a guy who finished ninth."
Heim addresses Hocevar comments, media call-out
Heim admitted to us that it was more of a joke than anything, but that it was also something that needed to be said.
"At some point, it’s just – you got to point out that everyone’s just trying to talk about the same thing, I guess," he continued. "So I was just making fun of it. But yeah, as long as I’m the one that’s happy at the end of the day, I’ll be happy to answer questions."
While Heim's statistics have indeed been better than Hocevar's thus far, Heim, like everybody, knows that his rival still has the talent and the potential to win races himself down the road. And he's already ready for the inevitable reaction from the media that would come with any form of Hocevar success, especially if it's at Heim's expense or comes after another on-track dustup or disagreement.
"I’m sure there will be times in the future where he’s winning and I’m not, and I’ll get asked about it as well," he added. "I certainly won’t be in as good of a mood, I guess, answering those questions!"
Heim has two more Cup Series starts lined up for the postseason after competing in the opener at Darlington Raceway and placing 19th. He's set to compete at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October and Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, and he is then set to replace Riley Herbst behind the wheel of the No. 35 Toyota full-time for 23XI Racing in 2027.
His points-per-race average in his 10 starts so far in 2026 is good for 10th best in the series.
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