MARTINSVILLE, Va. — There were fireworks on the track and off at Martinsville Speedway on the night of Saturday, Sept. 26, the venue for arguably the most prestigious late-model stockcar race, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300.
Caden Kvapil took the checkered flag and clinched the Virginia Triple Crown, but all eyes were on the two cars behind him.
In a two-lap shootout after a late caution, Brickyard 400 winner Corey Heim and Treyton Lapcevich couldn’t catch Kvapil, but battled each other aggressively for second place. Lapcevich, apparently not pleased with how Heim raced him, ran into the right side of Heim’s No. 22 Toyota into turn 1 of the cool down lap. Heim then drove up over the left front end of Lapcevich’s No. 77 machine. Both cars were
essentially destroyed in the conflict.
🤯 BIG COLLISION after the checkered flag between Treyten Lapcevich & Corey Heim at Martinsville!#VSCU300 | September 25-26 | Live on FloRacing 📺 pic.twitter.com/jHy8CX9QBL
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) September 27, 2026
Lapcevich was seemingly on his way to confront Heim about the on-track incident on pit road, but was stopped by his team owner, Chad Bryant. However, Bryant’s crew then attacked Heim near Martinsville's iconic hot dog stand as he was leaving pit road.
Video shows at least three different people throwing punches at Heim as he tried to evade them. The scuffle was broken up after about 20 seconds by deputies with the Henry County Sheriff’s Office and Heim went to his hauler. When he was ready to leave the track, Heim was escorted out by two deputies.
Longer video of Chad Bryant Racing jumping Corey Heim
— Matt Spalding (@MattJBasketball) September 27, 2026
From Buddy Pulley on Facebook pic.twitter.com/QpuGwXUltF
Things got a little heated at the @MartinsvilleSwy hot dog stand after the race for Corey Heim...🫣 pic.twitter.com/NiFUMVCwfB
— NASCAR Regional (@NASCARRegional) September 27, 2026
After leaving Martinsville, Heim posted a selfie with a thumbs up on X with a caption that read, “Solid effort, but at least make it count next time.”
There seemed to be some disagreement between the two drivers as to who caused the wreck on the cool-down lap. Lapcevich admitted to a reporter that he “went up to his right side,” but then claimed Heim “gasses up” and “kills both of our cars.”
Heim didn’t tell the story the same way.
“(Lapcevich) like pinned me onto the curb for some reason and just kept turning left,” Heim said from pit road before the fight. “And then my right front hopped his left front, and destroyed a perfectly good race car. So, props to him for that. Really classy. I really don't understand, I mean, we're racing for the lead and I can't see what he sees. He just tried to destroy my car under cool-down laps and succeeded.”
The 24-year-old Heim has won two NASCAR Cup Series races this season on a part-time schedule with 23XI Racing — the team co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. In addition to the Brickyard, where he was the second-youngest winner ever, Heim also took the checkered flag at the road course race at Naval Base Coronado.
With those two wins, Heim became the fastest driver to reach multiple victories in the Cup Series since 1972, taking a pair of checkered flags in his first 15 starts at the top level of NASCAR. Last year, Heim won the Truck Series championship and set the single-season wins record for the national touring series with 12.
He’ll go full-time Cup Series racing with 23XI next season, but this year has been running a mixed schedule, competing in the Cup Series, the Truck Series, and in local late-model races like the one in Martinsville. Heim has placed in the top five in two CARS Tour races this season — a late-model series co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and others — and also has a win in the Truck Series, taking the checkered flag at Darlington in March.
“I felt like tonight went well overall. I think the whole year of (late-model racing) was sort of a tune-up for this race,” Heim told USA TODAY Sports. “Sucks to end it like this, but as far as bouncing back from Cup to Truck to the late-models and stuff, it's a blast. Really, I'm very blessed to be able to do what I do. Just unfortunately couldn't get it done tonight.”
Sporting a pair of Jordan Brand racing boots — "a gift from the man himself," Heim said, referring to Jordan — Heim seemed calm and collected after the race and said he had no plans of confronting Lapcevich. Moments later though, Lapcevich's team brought the fight to Heim.
Heim said afterwards that this was his final late-model race of the year. He’ll have two more Cup Series races in the No. 67 Toyota with 23XI this season on Oct. 11 at Charlotte and Nov. 8 at Homestead. He's unsure if he'll have time for late-model racing next season, but would like to run the CARS Tour event at North Wilkesboro again if schedules align.
The kerfuffle between Heim and Lapcevich's crew members marks the second straight weekend that one of NASCAR's rising stars was involved in post-race confrontation. Last Saturday at Bristol, 23-year-old Carson Hocevar punched former Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney twice. Neither driver was fined or disciplined for the incident, though Ty Gibbs was called to the NASCAR hauler for throwing a water bottle during the dust-up.
Heim being attacked near the hot dog stand was also the second fight at the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville. Earlier in the day, drivers Brad Housewright and Chase Burrows threw punches near the garage area between heat races.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR driver Corey Heim targeted in scuffle at Martinsville late-model race
