Rajah Caruth held on to win his second career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway in a thrilling duel with Corey Heim and Layne Riggs through lapped traffic.
The win was important because Caruth won at Las Vegas early last season, and while he came close to following it up again with another, came up short for the next 31 races until Friday night.
It’s never that the Spire Motorsports driver lost faith but validating his own confidence and work ethic with a win was a big deal.
“Yeah, it’s a big deal to not be a one win wonder,” Caruth said. “Like, honestly, a lot of guys have won one race and that’s in. So with how things have gone a little bit since last year, I’m just glad to have put it together and I’m thankful for that.
“We’re in the playoffs and now we can start stacking some points to go into the postseason and make a run at this thing.”
That’s another thing too. Caruth entered this weekend just 13th in the championship standings and outside of the provisional playoffs. He had a 13.2 average finish and just six top-10s in 12 races.
Now, he’s in the playoffs and playoff points are the goal for the rest of the regular season.
This is also a race he earned some redemption for as he led at Nashville in 2023 and broke a lap afterwards.
“I was thinking about that this morning,” Caruth said. “I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve been thinking about that all week because that year, it was the rookie year of rookie years, with wreck after wreck, bad results and no speed, right?
“And (teammate) Grant (Enfinger) was winning races and the fact I was able to take the lead from Nick (Sanchez) who is in Xfinity now, and Carson (Hocevar) who is a multitime winner and Zane (Smith) is a champion, to have it taken away was a bummer. But I thought about that a lot going into the night and to get one back, I never feel like anything is deserved but it definitely feels nice to get a triumph here.”
Dramatic battle
Corey Heim and Layne Riggs controlled the first half of the race, splitting the first two stages between them, but the Spire No. 71 did their part to win the race on pit road.
But credit to Caruth too who did not seemingly have the best car at the end but delivered a defensive aero blocking clinic and stalled out Heim with every run that was made on him.
Caruth says the laps leading up 10 to go was more stressful than the final 10 because one of the drivers he put a lap down was William Sawalich, driving a teammate truck to Heim.
“I got to (Sawalich) and it was just a bunch of air blocking and as soon as I passed him, he just rolled over for (Heim),” Caruth said. “So that was the biggest hurdle I had to deal with. (Heim) got the top working pretty well in (Turns) 3 and 4 and I just had to cover it a couple of times.
“But once Layne got there, it really just made it to where I could extend the gap and get some breathing room.”
Heim, the division leader in wins this season, credited Caruth for his drive.
“I feel like just clean air was the main thing tonight,” Heim said. “With the third stage tonight being pretty straight forward, with a lack of strategy and all green, it was tough to come back for the lead, but I slid through my box there on the last stop and didn’t do my guys any favors. Just something to reflect on my end, but huge congrats to Rajah (Caruth).
“He did an awesome job managing from the lead. I was really free behind him, and he made pretty much the right move every time where I was going to go. That was cool; big congrats to him, and thank you to TRICON Garage, Toyota, Safelite – we wrapped up the month with Foster Love with a P2. I would have loved to get my first guitar, but always next time.”
For his part, Riggs exited his truck and said it was ‘a hell of a show’ to watch ahead of him but also feels like one got away from his team today. Riggs passed Heim on the track but twice got bit on pit road.
“This was the biggest stinger so far,” Riggs said. “What a dominant truck and the last time I felt like this was Bristol where we didn’t win. I feel like I did everything flawless on the race track and we just gave it away on pit road.
“We just have to be better on pit road. Especially here in the trucks because it is so single lane and line dominant and you balance shifts with each truck you pass on your way to the front. …
“I was hoping those guys would get to battling hard and I could sneak one out but congrats to Rajah. He did a great job and had a great truck.”
A good Day
Hendrick Motorsports development driver, and a Sprint Car ace turned NASCAR hopeful similar to Kyle Larson, Corey Day enjoyed his best overall day since forging his path into Stock Cars this season.
He finished fifth, his best overall result, on a night where he consistently ran around the top five and seemed to really turn a corner with the nuances of Stock Car aero racing.
“I’m usually not this happy to run fifth,” Day said. “This was a hard earned fifth for sure. … We’ve had multiple races where we’ve had a fast truck but either something has happened or I screwed up.
“It feels really good to get a top five with a clean truck.”
Day said there was something about Nashville Superspeedway that meshed with his driving style.
“I could make moves on guys where I needed to,” Day said. “I got lucky with qualifying getting rained out and starting fifth. Starting near the front helps a lot. Being in the back with how aero sensitive these trucks are is tough.”
Day has also learned to finesse his driving style a bit.
“I think situational awareness, learning to ride around but still maintain,” Day said. “In Sprint Car racing, it’s hammer down for 30 laps and if you let up, you get ate up. I didn’t know how to slow down and maintain and I’m starting to get it. I hope this isn’t just a one-off and we continue to progress.”
Results
- Rajah Caruth
- Corey Heim
- Layne Riggs
- Daniel Hemric
- Corey Day
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Chandler Smith
- Ty Majeski
- Bayley Currey
- Grant Enfinger
- Dawson Sutton
- Jake Garcia
- Giovanni Ruggiero
- Ben Rhodes
- Kyle Busch
- Tanner Gray
- Tyler Ankrum
- Luke Fenhaus
- Andres Perez De Lara
- Jack Wood
- Stewart Friesen
- Matt Mills
- Connor Mosack
- William Sawalich
- Matt Crafton
- Spencer Boyd
- Clayton Green
- Nathan Byrd
- Tyler Tomassi
- Toni Breidinger
- Akinori Ogata
- Frankie Muniz
