“He had no run or no momentum”- Corey Heim addresses Chandler Smith’s disappointment about helping Chevrolet rival

Corey Heim has reacted to his Toyota teammate Chandler Smith's disappointment about the Atlanta Motor Speedway race incident. Momentarily before the final lap began, Heim propelled Austin Hill to the lead, destroying Smith's potential win.

The Focused Health 250 marked the 24th regular season Xfinity Series battle on the 1.5-mile oval. Jesse Love was the polesitter but succumbed to a late-race crash after the Lap 145 pileup eliminated multiple contenders. His #2 Chevy suffered some damage but rounded up a sixth-place finish.

Chandler Smith and Austin Hill battled door-to-door for the lead during the second to last lap. In the meantime, Corey Heim closed in on the frontrunners, and, just before Smith could take the white flag as the leader, Heim's #26 Toyota pushed Hill's #21 Chevy to the top, with the latter entering the deciding lap as the frontrunner.

On the other hand, Joe Gibbs Racing's Smith lost multiple track positions and finished fourth. He was disappointed with his Toyota teammate and blamed the Sam Hunt Racing driver for his loss. However, according to Heim, Smith didn't have any momentum and thus, helping him wasn't on the cards.

"At the end of the day, the move was going to be made on a straightaway, not in the middle of the corner. So, if you wanted me to push him by, I mean, I feel like if he just dropped to my bumper at (turn) 4 on the straightaway and had ourselves both an opportunity to win the race, I would have gladly pushed him," Heim said via Skewcar on X (0:10).

"But he had no run or no momentum, so why go to the bottom at that point? I come here to win the race," the #26 Toyota driver added.

Corey Heim has made 11 Xfinity starts this year and has collected three top-5s and four top-10s.

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“I can’t give a damn about the points”- Chandler Smith frustrated with Corey Heim helping Austin Hill's Chevy

Chandler Smith kicked off his 163-lap run from eighth place and posted ninth and tenth-place finishes in Stages 1 and 2, respectively. The #81 JGR driver has etched two wins, nine top-5s, and 14 top-10s, from his 24 race weekends.

Furthermore, he inched closer to his third win of the season and could've climbed atop the regular season leaderboard. However, Corey Heim's push to Austin Hill changed the probable outcome and disappointed the Toyota teammate.

"That last restart, I got cleared and stayed up top to help my Toyota teammate, pull him along and that ultimately lost me the lead doing that. At the very end there I shoved the 21 (Austin Hill) into (turn) 3 and got a good run, was able to pull underneath him and Toyota stayed up top with the Chevy," Smith said via Frontstretch on X (0:10).

The JGR driver added:

"I can’t give a damn about the points that we earned today."

Despite the Atlanta setback, Chandler Smith's two wins have locked his place in the 2024 playoffs.