For a man who has never raced in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Rajah Caruth had an outstanding run on Saturday. Caruth, the Winston-Salem State student and racing phenom, finished tenth in the maiden voyage of his No. 7 Chevrolet.
It was an eventful day for Caruth who qualified 19th and had to race his way into the top ten more than once. Caruth avoided disaster during stage two of the race when he spun out trying to avoid a wreck ahead of him. When Taylor Gray backed his No. 17 into the wall Caruth was barreling along the high side of the track and had to take evasive action. He spun around and lost position but fortunately didn’t hit anyone else or the wall. He was able to recover from that unexpected course of events with so much time remaining in the race.
Then with about 25 laps to go Caruth found himself racing in a three wide battle and contact pushed his fenders in as a caution came out. Caruth had to pit from the No. 9 position and restarted outside of the top twenty.
Fighting back into top ten
Fresher tires allowed Caruth to battle back to the 15th spot where he seemed destined to finish with three laps remaining. But a late caution forced the race into overtime with a green, white, checkered shootout. The leaders didn’t put which allowed Caruth to maintain the freshest tires of anyone running in the top 20 for the restart. The fresher tires allowed Caruth to pick off a couple of spots on the restart before Lady Luck paid him one last favor.
After eventual race winner Corey Haim took the white flag a three truck crash occurred. Caruth seized the opportunity to gain a few more spots as the crash unfolded and the caution came out with Caruth in tenth place. Since it was the last lap of the race the caution froze the field and ended the race.
The rookie showed that while he’s still learning, he’s not out there to just turn laps and ride around. His ability to come back from adversity on multiple occasions and still finish in the top ten is why so many people see great potential in Caruth.
He’ll be back on the race track next weekend in the ARCA Menards Series at the Iowa Speedway. Rajah Caruth is currently the points leader in the ARCA Series, leading his teammate Nick Sanchez by five points.