Winston-Salem State student and NASCAR driver Rajah Caruth finished 13th on Saturday in the XPEL 225 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. That finish is the highest ever during Caruth’s first year in the truck series.
Caruth finished seven spots ahead of his starting position at the Circuit of Americas race track in Austin, Texas. He competes full-time for GMS Racing in the truck series after competing part-time for Alpha Prime Racing during the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. Caruth also raced full-time in the ARCA Menards Series for Rev Racing in 2022.
The race in Austin is the fourth race of the year for Rajah Caruth. He had back to back 29th place finishes at Daytona and Las Vegas coupled with a 25th place finish last weekend at Atlanta.
After the first of two stages of the race Caruth sat in 21st place, one spot off from his starting position. At the end of the second stage Caruth dipped back to the no. 23 spot. But later in the race the tables would turn. In the closing laps Caruth worked his way up as high as the fifth position but older tires made a top five finish unsustainable. Fresher tires meant more speed for the opposition and Caruth held on for the 13th place finish.
Saturday’s race was the first road race of the season in the truck series. COTA is a 3.41 mile track with 11 left turns and nine right turns with 130 feet of elevation change.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is back in action on April 1 at the Texas Motor Speedway.