Rajah Caruth posted his best-ever finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season-opening race at the Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
Despite being involved in one of the early multi-vehicle collisions that caused one of a race-record 12 cautions, Caruth was largely able to stay out of other dust-ups to place second behind first-time winner Nick Sanchez.
“I’m trying to play it back differently in the last laps, but thank you to everybody at Spire Motorsports, HendrickCars.com, the Hendrick Automotive Group, and Mr. H (Rick Hendrick) for what they’ve done for me along with everybody at Spire and Chevy,” Caruth told NASCAR.com after the race.
One of those cautions was a 12-truck pile-up on the last lap that collected most of the, at that time, remaining field and caused Taylor Gray’s truck to go airborne, as he flipped over another truck.
Caruth’s No. 71 truck pushed up off the exit of Turn 2, running third on the inside line. That slide led him to the left rear of Jack Wood’s No. 91 Chevy and spun him into Gray, triggering the 12-truck crash.
Asked about it after the last lap melee, Gray said: “I like Rajah a lot; I just don’t know what he was doing. There’s no hole to get in. The 91 (truck) is obviously still at his right front. And I don’t know if he’s trying to stall the lane and just misjudged it or what. But he just got the 91 in the left rear, and obviously, you guys saw it from there.”
Rajah Caruth, a full-time race car driver and student at @WSSURAMS, gave a shoutout to @stephenasmith ❤️ #BlackHistoryAlways pic.twitter.com/SQ7yi3tj33
— First Take (@FirstTake) February 14, 2024
Caruth, a Winston-Salem State student, took the lead on the first lap of overtime with a push from teammate Corey LaJoie. However, the Caruth and LaJoie got too far out in front of the field, allowing a group led by Sanchez to get together and quickly overtake the duo.
The Craftsman Truck Series next race is the Fr8 208 on February 24 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
