Surviving 12 cautions and multiple collisions to see through the chaos, riding towards the finish line in his Chevy was Rajah Caruth in his #71 truck. He registered his career-best finish at NASCAR’s crown jewel event at the iconic Daytona International Speedway. While a win did not fall into place for Caruth amidst the chaos, he still made a strong impression on his return to Spire Motorsports on Friday night, ushering in a new era for the brand.

Even though Nick Sanchez took the throne in the high-speed circus, it wasn’t an easy task for Caruth, who had to fight the fire, letting the field know his intentions. In fact, in the caution-riddled race, he was the sort of gentleman who did not resort to the usual wreck-it-or-make-it tactics of the truckers. Yet he found himself in tough situations, forced to give one back to his competitors. After finishing second to the #2 of Sanchez, Caruth met the Cup Series sensation, Bubba Wallace on his way back. Speaking to Matt Weaver, the 21-year-old detailed what it was like confronting the 23XI Racing driver after a hard-fought battle.

Rajah Caruth explains his meeting with Bubba Wallace after the wild finish at Daytona

Speaking to Weaver in his post-race interview, Caruth painted the picture of meeting Wallace, a driver he has always looked up to, coming over to greet the young star for his stellar performance. He said, “We were just talking about the finish. He’s always been there for me since I started racing for my first legend car races, so just going over what happened there and how he saw him and how I saw it. That’s it.” 

Regardless of how it went down, his father, Roger Caruth, had words to share with ‘Frontstretch’ after the race, expressing nothing but pride. He said, “I’m extremely proud (of Rajah), Daytona is a tough track. You just have to maintain and be there at the end, and he was.” Before Friday’s race, Caruth’s best was a sixth-place finish that he racked up twice last year.

But this time, the youngster survived several wrecks, steering clear of all the commotion with his eyes set only on his goal. Running up front throughout the race, the young trucker even snatched the lead from his competitors but was overwhelmed by the pack’s aggressive pace. But even then, the Winston-Salem native showed true character, fighting the fight only when it was needed and not getting into unnecessary altercations. However, he had some hand in the final wreck that collected multiple cars on the backstretch. “I like Rajah a lot. But I just don’t know what he was doing,” said Taylor Gray, whose race was undone after Caruth seemingly ticked off the avalanche.

The move that sealed Caruth a career-best finish, was also the one that rattled the cage, initiating the wild multi-car wreck.

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Corey LaJoie’s late move that launched Caruth to a top 5 finish

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It was chaos and pandemonium at the 2.5-mile speedway in Daytona, Florida as the Truck Series season opener went for one final caution when a massive pile-up collected almost all of its drivers, except for the race leaders and some lucky souls. In a wreck-infested race, this was the final nail in the coffin that got a lot of criticism from within the industry.

And what was the cause of the whole debacle, you ask? Well, a move from Caruth’s teammate, LaJoie, ticked off the last-lap carnage as the Cup Series regular ensured that his teammate got to the top with risky moves that in the last lap of the race turned awry, collecting almost everyone behind the #71 including him.

Caruth was in the front for most of the final lap, mostly with the help of Lajoie. The latter pushed him out to the lead on almost every restart late in the race, including the final one in overtime. Both Caruth and Lajoie were in contention for the win on the last lap, running only behind Sanchez and Taylor Gray. But that’s when a slight miscalculation from Caruth got the race all the notoriety. His No. 71 Chevrolet bumped into Jack Wood, sparking a massive last-lap crash that saw Gray get turned over in the middle of the main pack.

In the end, LaJoie ended up wrecking out with zero points, finishing 20th while Caruth registered a second-place finish, his career-best finish in the division, thus ushering a new dawn in Spire Motorsports.

Read More: Corey LaJoie Shockingly Acquits “Pretty Smart” Rajah Caruth for Truck Series Daytona Debacle