Rajah Caruth grabs a dramatic NASCAR Truck Series win at Nashville Superspeedway on Friday night in the Rackley Roofing 200.
LEBANON, Tenn.—In the closing laps of Friday night’s Rackley Roofing 200 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, Rajah Caruth had a question for himself.
Rajah Caruth Wins at Nashville
“How bad do you want it?” Caruth thought silently, as four-time winner Corey Heim and Layne Riggs pursued him relentlessly over the final circuits.
Caruth answered his question by driving flawlessly over the final 15 laps and crossing the finish line 0.518 seconds ahead of Heim in second and 0.629 seconds ahead of Riggs in third.
The victory was Caruth’s first at Nashville, his first of the season and the second of his career, and it vaulted him into the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Playoffs.
After Heim won the second stage—his ninth stage win of the season—a quick pit stop under caution during the stage break gave Caruth the lead on lap 100, and he held it the rest of the way to claim the coveted guitar trophy that goes to Nashville winners.
Driving the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Caruth led twice for 61 of 150 laps, including the last 51.
“I didn’t expect that at all—those guys were breathing down my neck the whole run,” Caruth said of Heim and Riggs. “My pit crew won that race. They won the race for us, got us off pit road twice.
“We’ve been off this year, but it was good to get it done tonight. That was a lot of fun. I asked myself, ‘How bad do you want it?’ I just tried my best, and we had clean air. Their stuff was better, but I just did my best. That was it.”
The Rackley Roofing 200 Results
Heim agreed that losing the lead on the final pit stop was critical.
“With the third stage being so straightforward—lack of strategy, going green there—it was tough to come back from not having the lead. But I slid through my (pit) box during the last stop and didn’t do my guys any favors… just something to reflect on my end.
“But huge congrats to Rajah. He did an awesome job managing from the lead. I was really free behind him, and he made pretty much the right choice every time as far as where I was going to go.”
Riggs won the first stage. He got to Heim’s bumper twice in the battle for second but couldn’t claim the runner-up spot.
“I’ll tell you, I had the best seat in the house there at the end of that race,” said Riggs, who fell from second to eighth off pit road during the second stage break because of trouble removing his right front tire. “They were doing some racing right there in front of me.
“I hoped to be right there in the mix. I just didn’t have enough time.”
Daniel Hemric came home fourth, followed by Corey Day, a dirt-track phenom who posted his first top five in his ninth start in Truck Series competition.
NASCAR Truck Series Point Standings
Heim widened his series lead to 122 points over second-place Hemric. Chandler Smith is just three points behind Hemric in third place. Tyler Ankrum and Grant Enfinger are tied at -160 points behind the leader.
Up Next
The NASCAR Truck Series travels to Michigan International Speedway for its next race on Saturday, June 7th.. The DQS Solutions & Staffing 200 begins at noon ET. Coverage is on FOX, NASCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.