With 15 laps to go in the Truck race earlier at Michigan, Corey Heim needed that push from his teammate Kaden Honeycutt to snatch the lead from Carson Hocevar, who dominated most of the race. And as he took the lead, Honeycutt followed him up soon, but with two laps to go, the teammates got into an uncomfortable situation, and reacting to the same, the reigning Truck Series champion sent in a short message for Honeycutt.

“Just get thicker skin and deal with it,” Heim told Matt Weaver while addressing the media after the race. “That’s honestly my advice to him.” The situation did get a bit odd for Kaden Honeycutt when he attempted to make a final-lap move and snatch the lead away from Corey Heim. And the latter defended it hard, blocking the #11 for as long as he could. It almost seemed that they were headed for a photo finish; however, it was a clear win for Heim instead.

Moreover, Honeycutt felt that Heim should have pushed him when they were racing Hocevar, as he did with Bell earlier: “Yeah, he had no problem working with Bell in the second stage to pull away, and then he gets to me and just drives right by me. So yeah, just definitely unfortunate,” he told Weaver right after the race.

Although Corey Heim had taken that push from Honeycutt to get into the lead with just a few laps remaining, he felt that he wasn’t supposed to pay that back in any way, especially considering they were racing on the final lap.

“When it’s the white flag, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do at that point. I mean, if he wrecked me by me blocking him, then that’s my fault, and that’s fine. You know, it is what it is,” Heim told the media.

Corey Heim took what was his third victory this season, and although it became a show of power, that victory hurt Honeycutt in more ways than one could imagine.

While Heim is no longer a full-time driver this season, Honeycutt is, and the soon-to-be 23-year-old has his whole career lying ahead of him. Currently in championship contention, Honeycutt lost the lead in the table to Layne Riggs earlier after his back-to-back wins, and with just one race win in his bag this season, Honeycutt is finding it hard to keep up with the title contention.

There is currently a 26-point gap separating Riggs and Honeycutt right at the top of the table, all while Chandler Smith climbs the ranks to take the third spot, so his disappointment after the Michigan race, where the Toyotas performed so well, is understandable; Honeycutt failed to win. Perhaps Corey Heim could have given him a tow and defended a little less hard, but at the end of the day, it was racing at its finest.

But again, maybe Heim would have found it a little too hard to make for the race win if it weren’t for his Toyota teammates.

Corey Heim reflects on working with Kaden Honeycutt to win the race

“Christopher (Bell) and I kind of had a little bit of a discussion pre-race that we thought we were good enough to link up and sort of pull away from the field, and we were able to do that in the first two stages,” Heim revealed after the race.

It isn’t unprecedented to see the same manufacturer drivers assisting each other to win races, and that is exactly what Christopher Bell and Corey Heim seemed to be doing at Michigan. Both of the drivers were not competing for points, and yet, working together, they did manage to clear the field. Moreover, the performance they had behind the wheel helped them to do the same.

However, Bell didn’t hang on for the longest of times, and as the third stage proceeded, it was Honeycutt whose support Heim had to hang on to to make it to the lead and even get closer to Carson Hocevar’s #77. However, he also explained why he was practically forced to block him off on the final lap.

“Thankfully, the 11 (Kaden Honeycutt) picked us up and worked with us. I thought we were going to have to race him from the get-go, but we kind of relayed that we could work together like he and the 62 (Christopher Bell) did to get away, and from there we did, and then we got to race it out. He almost got to my right rear, which would have been the end for me, so I had to block the best I could, and it worked out for me.”

At the end of the day, it was yet another race win for Heim. With three wins, if he were competing for the title, he would be at the top of the table. However, that is not the case. For Honeycutt, it was another day of learning, and although he is not leading the table anymore, he still has quite an opportunity to contend for the championship.