{"id":52447,"date":"2025-05-30T22:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T03:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=52447"},"modified":"2025-06-01T08:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T13:35:15","slug":"rajah-caruth-holds-off-corey-heim-in-dramatic-truck-series-win-at-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/rajah-caruth-holds-off-corey-heim-in-dramatic-truck-series-win-at-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajah Caruth holds off Corey Heim in dramatic Truck Series win at Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Rajah Caruth, driver of the #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30, 2025 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em> <\/p>\n

LEBANON, Tenn.\u2014In the closing laps of Friday night\u2019s Rackley Roofing 200 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, Rajah Caruth had a question for himself.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rajah Caruth, driver of the #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30, 2025 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHow bad do you want it?\u201d Caruth thought silently, as four-time winner Corey Heim and Layne Riggs pursued him relentlessly over the final circuits.<\/p>\n

Caruth answered his own question by driving flawlessly over the final 15 laps and crossed the finish line 0.518 seconds ahead of Heim in second and 0.629 seconds ahead of Riggs in third.<\/p>\n

The victory was Caruth\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

After Heim won the second stage\u2014his ninth stage win of the season\u2014a 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rajah Caruth, driver of the #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30, 2025 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Driving the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Caruth led twice for 61 of 150 laps, including the last 51.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect that at all\u2014those guys were breathing down my neck the whole run,\u201d Caruth said of Heim and Riggs. \u201cMy pit crew won that race. They won the race for us, got us off pit road twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been off this year, but it was good to get it done tonight. That was a lot of fun. I asked myself, \u2018How bad do you want it?\u2019 I just tried my best, and we had clean air. Their stuff was better, but I just did my best. That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rajah Caruth, driver of the #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, leads Corey Heim, driver of the #11 Safelite\/Foster Love Toyota, and t34during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30, 2025 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Heim agreed that losing the lead on the final pit stop was critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the third stage being so straightforward\u2014lack of strategy, going green there\u2014it was tough to come back from not having the lead. But I slid through my (pit) box during the last stop and didn\u2019t do my guys any favors\u2026 just something to reflect on my end.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riggs, who won the first stage, got to Heim\u2019s bumper twice in the battle for second but couldn\u2019t claim the runner-up spot.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rajah Caruth, driver of the #71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on May 30, 2025 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, I had the best seat in the house there at the end of that race,\u201d said Riggs, who fell from second to eighth off pit road during the second stage break because of trouble removing his right front tire. \u201cThey were doing some racing right there in front of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hoped to be right there in the mix. I just didn\u2019t have enough time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Heim widened his series lead to 122 points over second-place Hemric entering the June 7 DQS Solutions & Staffing 200 at Michigan International Speedway.<\/p>\n

Interview:<\/h3>\n

NCTS Race Winner – Rajah Caruth (No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet) – <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Race – Rackley Roofing 200<\/b><\/p>\n

Nashville Superspeedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Nashville, Tennessee<\/b><\/p>\n

Friday, May 30, 2025<\/b><\/p>\n

                1. (10)  Rajah Caruth, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                2. (1)  Corey Heim, Toyota, 150.<\/p>\n

                3. (3)  Layne Riggs, Ford, 150.<\/p>\n

                4. (7)  Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                5. (5)  Corey Day(i), Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                6. (2)  Kaden Honeycutt, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                7. (23)  Chandler Smith, Ford, 150.<\/p>\n

                8. (26)  Ty Majeski, Ford, 150.<\/p>\n

                9. (6)  Bayley Currey, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                10. (4)  Grant Enfinger, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                11. (29)  Dawson Sutton #, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                12. (9)  Jake Garcia, Ford, 150.<\/p>\n

                13. (17)  Giovanni Ruggiero #, Toyota, 150.<\/p>\n

                14. (15)  Ben Rhodes, Ford, 150.<\/p>\n

                15. (12)  Kyle Busch(i), Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                16. (21)  Tanner Gray, Toyota, 150.<\/p>\n

                17. (8)  Tyler Ankrum, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                18. (19)  Luke Fenhaus, Ford, 150.<\/p>\n

                19. (16)  Andres Perez De Lara #, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                20. (22)  Jack Wood, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                21. (13)  Stewart Friesen, Toyota, 150.<\/p>\n

                22. (11)  Matt Mills, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                23. (20)  Connor Mosack #, Chevrolet, 150.<\/p>\n

                24. (14)  William Sawalich(i), Toyota, 149.<\/p>\n

                25. (18)  Matt Crafton, Ford, 149.<\/p>\n

                26. (25)  Spencer Boyd, Chevrolet, 148.<\/p>\n

                27. (31)  Clayton Green, Ford, 148.<\/p>\n

                28. (24)  Nathan Byrd, Chevrolet, 147.<\/p>\n

                29. (28)  Tyler Tomassi(i), Ford, 147.<\/p>\n

                30. (30)  Toni Breidinger #, Toyota, 144.<\/p>\n

                31. (32)  Akinori Ogata, Toyota, 144.<\/p>\n

                32. (27)  Frankie Muniz #, Ford, Engine, 2.<\/p>\n

Average Speed of Race Winner:  116.591 mph.<\/p>\n

Time of Race:  1 Hrs, 42 Mins, 40 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.518 Seconds.<\/p>\n

Caution Flags:  4 for 27 laps.<\/p>\n

Lead Changes:  7 among 4 drivers.<\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:   C. Heim 1-10;C. Day(i) 11;C. Heim 12-18;L. Riggs 19-48;C. Heim 49;R. Caruth 50-59;C. Heim 60-99;R. Caruth 100-150.<\/p>\n

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Rajah Caruth 2 times for 61 laps; Corey Heim 4 times for 58 laps; Layne Riggs 1 time for 30 laps; Corey Day(i) 1 time for 1 lap.<\/p>\n

Stage #1 Top Ten: 34,11,71,19,45,7,18,9,44,99<\/p>\n

Stage #2 Top Ten: 11,34,71,7,45,9,44,19,13,26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  LEBANON, Tenn.\u2014In the closing laps of Friday night\u2019s Rackley Roofing 200 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, Rajah Caruth had a question for himself. \u201cHow bad do you want it?\u201d Caruth thought silently, as four-time winner Corey Heim and Layne Riggs pursued him relentlessly over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":52450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,882,1097,903],"class_list":["post-52447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-craftsmen-truck-series","tag-nashville-superspeedway","tag-rajath-caruth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2217898137-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dDV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52465,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52447\/revisions\/52465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}