Corey Heim clinched his first career crown jewel win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The funny thing is that he’s not even running full-time in the Cup Series and is already making big splashes. While the 23XI Racing camp basked in the glory, Heim’s long-time rival, Carson Hocevar, had to settle for P9. And the biggest highlight from his side came when he flipped off Heim on lap 91.
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It’s not a secret that Carson Hocevar and Corey Heim don’t like each other. And a rivalry that started back in Craftsman Truck Series has now made its way to Cup racing. When asked about the incident between him and Heim, the Spire Motorsports driver gave an unfiltered answer. “Ah, it’s fun, even if we don’t like each other, but we race really hard and his stuff’s superfast, obviously, the car he’s in, he does a really, really good job.”
Although Hocevar sounded level-headed, he is looking to get back to Heim in future races, where perhaps he can have the upper hand. “I’m looking forward to when we can get our stuff a little better, being in front of him and maybe holding him up.”
Hocevar was getting frustrated in his car while trying to chase the No. 67 car. His team had to calm him down to get him to focus on the finish. “We’re not gonna win the race on lap 89 passing Corey Heim, so take care of your stuff, 11 to go this time.” Spire Motorsports Chevy brought the speed at Indy as they locked out the front row to start the race. However, Toyota teams had better balance and execution of their strategies.
Meanwhile, Corey Heim was also asked about the incident with Hocevar in the post-race TNT coverage. “I handed him a big fat ‘L’ after that one.” This left the entire TNT panel, including Dale Jr in splits. Yet, the racing between the two drivers was clean and respectful. In fact, Heim wasn’t aware of being flipped off by Hocevar as he was busy trying to execute the race.
“I was blocking him, not really too bad, I thought. I mean, I was trying to just hold my position, and I never threw like a bad block. I was just trying to protect my entry, and he didn’t like it, but he lost, and I won, so I don’t really care,” Heim explained.
It is worth noting that Heim now has more wins than Hocevar (2 Cup Series wins) in just 15 starts. Whereas Hocevar is closing in on 100 starts with a single Cup win to his name, which came at Talladega. If anything, this new rivalry could deliver a lot of exciting moments, and this is going to be one of the big storylines heading into the 2027 season.