There’s more than just winning when it comes to success in NASCAR, consistency is king. Right now Winston-Salem State senior Rajah Caruth is hitting on all cylinders in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
On Saturday in Atlanta Caruth battled back for an eighth place finish which has him in the No. 5 spot in the standings after two races.
The race wasn’t without some hold your breath moments for Caruth which could have ruined his day. During a mid race pitstop while leaving his pit box Caruth was smacked in the rear quarter panel by Lawless Alan along pitroad. The damage didn’t appear to impact the aerohandling of Caruth’s truck but toward the end of stage two Caruth suffered a rear flat tire.
Pitting at that point would have easily put Caruth a lap down but to his good fortune a caution for debris on the track came out moments later. Caruth limped around the track waiting for pit road to open but couldn’t afford to gamble on potential damage and dashed to the pits before pit road was officially open. The rub in this situation, literally, was if the tire had come apart on the track it would have torn his quarter panel to pieces like a giant weed eater.
I don’t know how I didn’t wreck
“I don’t know how I didn’t wreck with that tire from pit row damage, but a solid day, everybody kept their cool and executed and now we can actually go race next week,” Caruth said after the race.
The penalty for pitting early was restarting at the tail end of the pack when the action resumed and stage three began. From that point Caruth worked his way back through the field settling for an eighth place finish in a day where he was teased with the possibility of bad fortune.
He did have a fellow Winston-Salem State alum on his side at the track however. Kyle Santillian, a nationally syndicated radio host made his first ever trip to a NASCAR event to support Rajah Caruth. He documented his trip in a funny clip on social media that you can see above here in this article.
Caruth is now 25 points off the lead in the Truck Series. Tyler Ankrum who hasn’t won a race but has led 62 laps with one top ten finish is the current leader.
The NASCAR Craftsmen Truck Series moves on to Las Vegas with the next race scheduled for Friday March 1.