Only a couple of weeks ago, Rajah Caruth turned heads at Atlanta, impressing veterans with some crazy defensive moves and finishing 8th. After starting with Dale Jr.‘s JR Motorsports, the young driver made a switch to Jordan Anderson Racing at Phoenix as he manages a dual calendar. What followed was the kind of debut that left his team owner on the verge of tears.

Jordan Anderson relishes newfound resurgence

With a P7 and P8 finish, Jordan Anderson Racing is off to a great start in the O’Reilly Series. When asked about his team’s performance, Anderson was on cloud nine.

“Yeah, I had tears in my eyes that last lap. Almost speechless. Man, it takes a village. It takes a village. Everybody on this team works so hard. There’s team effort between the effort that Jeb has put in, Blaine has put in, and having Rajah come in.

“His first race was to get a top 10. This isn’t a super speedway race. This was a hard-earned, hard-fought short track, you know, intermediate, whatever you want to call Phoenix.”

Arguably, Phoenix is one of the more difficult tracks on the calendar. Yet, JAR was able to translate their practice session speed into a successful outing at Phoenix. When it comes to racing, it’s not necessary that a team that is fast during practice can do the same during the race.

However, in JAR’s case, their efforts made it possible, giving them their best weekend of 2026. What’s special is that their No. 32 car has been finishing in the top-10 since the first three races. With Caruth joining in their operations, they are happy to continue the success.

It is a positive start for JAR and the drivers on the whole. After all, the 2026 O’Reilly season is going to be all about the consistency and which drivers manage to keep their cool and prevent their performance from dropping off.

As it stands currently, Rajah Caruth is P7 in the drivers’ standings, having lost five positions. However, his teammate was able to climb eight positions and slot himself into P12 in the drivers’ standings after Phoenix.

While Caruth is happy with his performance, he understands that there is much left to be delivered. He still needs to find the balance of the car and gain more stage points in order to keep his championship hopes strong.

“I think we were definitely changing, chasing the balance the first part of the race, but really by the start of stage three, we got into a space where I felt like I could get the most out of it, and we were able to gain a lot of track position.

“I would have liked to have gotten stage points earlier, but I think with how that all played out with running long and how much ground we were making up before the stop, pitting later in the stop so we had a tire advantage, it just kind of worked out great in our favor.”

On that note, let’s have a look at the next two races that Rajah Caruth will be running with JAR.

How does Rajah Caruth’s season look after Phoenix?

Rajah Caruth is going to spend his 2026 season switching between JR Motorsports and JAR. Caruth’s next two races of the O’Reilly series at Las Vegas and Darlington will be with JAR. After that, he will switch back to JR Motorsports. Right now, his seat is being occupied by Hendrick Motorsports‘ drivers.

Caruth is already excited about his upcoming races and expects to carry the momentum forward. “I think just keeping up the processes, like just keeping the same effort and keeping the same attention and intention, I should say.

“Just keep pointing to the people and trusting them and doing my part on my end. So I wouldn’t say it’s much of a change-up; just keeping the process the same and enjoying it.” Caruth should stay eligible for the championship owing to his full-time schedule.

However, he is going to spend 10 races away from JR Motorsports as the HMS Cup Series drivers get behind the wheel of the No. 88 car.