Corey Heim is still in his black firesuit when the first shove lands. The clip opens on a concrete walkway outside a white concession building at Martinsville Speedway at night, with men in black team shirts closing in around him. Within three seconds it is a pile of bodies, and a few seconds later Heim has backed all the way up to the counter of the track’s hot dog stand, helmet still in his hand, under a menu board that reads “A Half Mile of Mayhem.”

The 29 second video was posted on September 26, 2026, by the racing media page @ontouratyl (On Tour) under the caption “COREY HEIM GETS AMBUSHED!” The page does not say who filmed it. Its caption gives the backstory: after contact in the closing laps while battling for second, Heim and Treyten Lapcevich “traded blows,” Heim “collided with Lapcevich in retaliation” after the race, and “Members of the No. 77 crew waited on Heim to walk back to his trailer when the fight ensued.”

What the Clip Shows

The menu board behind Heim is clear enough to read prices: potato chips at $3.00, bottled Pepsi and Aquafina water at $5.00, and a sign advertising the famous Martinsville Speedway hot dog. Heim stays pressed against that counter with his helmet held low while men in black shirts push at each other in front of him. Around the 12 second mark he is bent forward with the helmet held up near his chest.

At about 16 seconds a man in a jacket marked “Sheriff” pushes into the frame, and from there the scene changes. By 20 seconds a reporter’s microphone with a FloRacing flag is pointed at Heim, and two uniformed deputies are standing beside him. The last frames show Heim standing in the open under the track lights with his helmet in one hand, gesturing with the other, a deputy and a woman wearing a headset next to him. The clip has no captions, and the audio could not be read for this article.

What NASCAR Found

The race was the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, the late model stock car race at Martinsville. Caden Kvapil won it in the No. 88, according to NASCAR’s race report, which notes that Heim is a two time NASCAR Cup Series winner and that Lapcevich and Heim crashed behind Kvapil after the checkered flag.

Three days later NASCAR issued penalties for the fight. Three members of the No. 77 team were penalized under the NASCAR Rule Book sections that cover member to member confrontations with physical violence. NASCAR’s notice says the team owner attacked Heim in the pit area. He was fined $2,000, suspended indefinitely, suspended from the 2027 ValleyStar Credit Union 300, placed on one year of probation and ordered to complete anger management training. A crew member was fined $1,000 and suspended indefinitely, and a third team member was fined $500 and put on probation through 2027.

On NASCAR’s Hauler Talk podcast, as reported in NASCAR’s account of that episode, vice president of racing communications Mike Forde said officials reviewed the post race crash between Heim and Lapcevich and “chose not to penalize and focused more on the fight and the crew members.” He added, “When crew members get involved with putting their hands on the drivers, we’re going to react in a fashion that you probably don’t want to dip your toe into those waters.”

One commenter on the post argued that the anger came from Heim turning his car into Lapcevich after the race had already ended, which matches what the caption says happened. Another wrote that Heim “won the fight without swinging once.” In the frames captured for this article, his hands stay on his helmet.

If You Race or Crew at a Local Short Track

This fight happened at a regional late model race, not a Cup event, and the rule book applied all the same. A few things from NASCAR’s decision are worth knowing before your own Saturday night goes sideways.

The owner pays the most. The heaviest penalty went to the team owner, not the driver, including a ban from next year’s edition of the race and mandatory anger management training. If you own the car, your crew’s behavior is your responsibility.

Retaliating with the car and retaliating with fists are treated differently. Forde said NASCAR looked at the post race crash and chose not to penalize it, while every member of the No. 77 team who was penalized was cited for physical violence.

Video will find you. Forde said officials spent nearly two days going through video from multiple angles to identify everyone involved, joking that “There’s no facial recognition software at Martinsville Speedway.”