Martinsville has recently been the site of two major post-race brawls, and while fans can have a wide range of opinions on those events, Kenny Wallace is left somewhat disturbed and wastes no time delivering his take on them.
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In a clip posted on X, the veteran particularly addressed the confrontation between Corey Heim and several crew members of the Chad Bryant Racing team. Wallace condemned the punches thrown during the incident and warned that continuing to treat physical fighting as part of the sport could eventually leave someone seriously injured or even land a crew member in jail.
“That’s for fighting. You’re going to kill somebody. You’re going to hit them wrong and go to jail. And it’s not going to be right. Quit acting like fighting is good,” Wallace said.
Wallace’s strongest criticism was directed toward the crew members who went after Heim, as he added, “These crew members, these f****** crew members attack Corey Heim. They started punching him out.”
On the final lap of a Late Model race, Heim bumped into Treyten Lapcevich, and his car went over Lapcevich’s car, resulting in heavy damage for both of them. According to motorsport.com, Lapcevich tried confronting Heim, but Chad Bryant intervened.
What’s interesting is that not long afterwards, Bryant himself was charging at Heim, along with his crew members. Before this incident, Heim and Bryant actually had a working relationship, as the 24-year-old made his ARCA debut in a car owned by Bryant.
The other thing that caught Wallace’s attention was Heim’s response after the confrontation, as according to the veteran, he said, “next time, boys, make it count,” the driver wrote on X. Wallace interpreted the moment as another indication that Heim was capable of defending himself if he chose to.
“Something makes me think Corey Heim could kick some ass if he wanted to,” Wallace said.
He then reminded viewers of Heim’s previous successes at NASCAR’s higher levels, specifically pointing to the race at the Naval Base in Coronado. “Corey Heim is the one that spun Carson Hocevar out and won a Cup race out there in Naval Base, out there in Coronado. Remember, that’s Corey Heim.”
The rivalry between Hocevar and Heim goes way back to 2023, when Hocevar spun out Heim during a Truck Series race. Then, there was the moment at Coronado, and more recently at the Brickyard, just as Heim entered the pits, Hocevar flipped him off.
However, Wallace’s main concern went beyond Heim himself. He argued that fighting should not be normalized in NASCAR, something that seems to be picking up after the infamous post-race brawl between Hocevar and Ryan Blaney. The reason NASCAR didn’t penalize anyone for the Bristol brawl was that it was two drivers hashing out their differences. But when the crew members get involved, things can get pretty dicey.
Wallace also brought up another incident involving the same venue just a day earlier, when Brad Housewright and Chase Burrow engaged in a fierce brawl that left the former bloodied. Pointing to his own history at the track, he feels the nature of Martinsville itself makes incidents between competitors inevitable, and also jokingly reminded viewers that he is a two-time Martinsville winner.
“I’ve raced through my whole life. Look. Look at this. Ding dong. I got clocks everywhere. Look. One there, one up at the race shop. I won Martinsville twice. I’m the Martinsville man. I win at Martinsville. I know all about Martinsville. You’re going to get into each other sometimes when you don’t want to. But you don’t start trying to kill people over cars going in a circular rotation. It’s total bull****.”
He ended by directing the warning specifically at crew members involved in the fights, once again stressing the potential legal and physical consequences, as he said, “Crew members, stop it. You’re going to go to jail. You’re going to hit somebody wrong, and you’re going to hurt them.”