Rajah Caruth continues to put together solid finishes on a variety of tracks early in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. Over the weekend Caruth finished seventh at Martinsville helping him maintain his top ten position in the championship standings. Caruth is currently in seventh place, forty points behind series leader Ty Majeski.
Caruth qualified 16th to start the race and worked through handling problems early in the race to secure a top ten finish. Martinsville, known as the paperclip because of its track design, is one of the more challenging races on the circuit. The short straightaways and limited passing zones sets the stage for an aggressive race, especially in the turns. One spin, an untimely scrape up with the safer barrier, can easily get you off the lead lap and playing catch up the rest of the day.
Caruth himself acknowledged the skill it requires to keep his truck clean and in position to contend for the entire night.
“Came home P7 the other night at @MartinsvilleSwy. Wanted more for @TeamHendrick’s 40th anniversary, but steady improvement on my short track skills. Ready to put ‘em back on notice at the big tracks next,” Caruth posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Caruth one win, two top fives and five top tens in six races so far this season. The one area that could get Caruth higher up in the standings is by winning more stage points and of course winning more races. But thanks to his historic win earlier this year at Las Vegas, Caruth is already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs at the end of the season.
Caruth will be back in action this weekend for Friday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway. Texas is a mile and a half track similar in layout to Las Vegas where he garnered his first career win.
Qualifying for the SpeedyCash.com 250 will be on Friday at 4:35 pm ET, and the race is set to begin later that night at 8:30. Qualifying and the race will air nationally on FS1.
Caruth is currently a senior at Winston-Salem State University.
| POS | NO. | DRIVER | MFR | POINTS(STAGE) | BEHIND | STARTS | WINS | TOP 5s | TOP 10s | DNFs | LAPS LED | STAGE WINS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +1 |  | TY MAJESKI | 248 (93) | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 117 | 2 | |
| 2 | -1 |  | COREY HEIM | 241 (40) | -7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 49 | 1 | |
| 3 |  | TYLER ANKRUM | 241 (74) | -7 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 62 | 1 | ||
| 4 | +2 |  | CHRISTIAN ECKES | 237 (65) | -11 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 306 | 3 | |
| 5 | -1 |  | TAYLOR GRAY | 212 (32) | -36 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | |
| 6 | +1 |  | NICHOLAS SANCHEZ | 209 (45) | -39 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 36 | 1 | |
| 7 | -2 |  | RAJAH CARUTH | 208 (24) | -40 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 39 | 0 | |
| 8 |  | MATT CRAFTON | 173 (17) | -75 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 9 |  | GRANT ENFINGER | 154 (26) | -94 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 25 | 0 | ||
| 10 | +1 |  | BEN RHODES | 148 (34) | -100 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |