Truckin’ Thursdays: Rajah Caruth’s Quest for Promotion Not Aided by Hendrick

The NASCAR Craftsman.Truck Series is in the midst of a month-long hiatus that began following the June 28 race at Lime Rock Park and will conclude come green flag on July 25 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

However, that isn’t stopping its full-time drivers from finding other races to take part in to remain fresh as they begin their respective playoff pushes.

Kaden Honeycutt has gone zMAX CARS Tour racing twice, while Dawson Sutton has done some late model racing of his own. Jack Wood competed in the ARCA Menards Series West race at Sonoma Raceway, while his McAnally-Hilegemann Racing teammate Connor Mosack has competed in the previous two NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Chicago and Sonoma.

Even Corey Heim has attempted to get his racing fix in by running the Cup Series race at Chicago in a fourth 23XI Racing car. However, he was the lone driver that failed to qualify for the event, becoming the first driver to fail to qualify for a non-Daytona 500 Cup Series event since 2018.

This weekend will feature one more Truck Series regular getting a tune-up in before returning from the series’ month-long break. This time, it’s Rajah Caruth, who will make his first Xfinity Series start of 2025 at Dover Motor Speedway.

Caruth has made 19 career Xfinity Series starts since 2022, but hasn’t made one since 2023. Eighteen of his starts have come with Alpha Prime Racing, but his 19th (and most recent) Xfinity start was perhaps the biggest of his career — he got the opportunity to drive for Hendrick Motorsports.

Hendrick has fielded a part-time Xfinity entry, the No. 17, since 2022. While most of its drivers come from its Cup program looking for a one-off here or there, it recently has begun fielding other drivers for one-offs, including Caruth and Boris Said.

Caruth’s one-off with Hendrick makes sense. Since moving to Spire Motorsports’ Truck Series team (after GMS Racing shut down), HendrickCars.com — a business owned by Rick Hendrick himself — took on sponsorship of Caruth’s No. 71 for the entire season in both 2024 and 2025. In post-race interviews, Caruth makes sure to thank “Mr. and Mrs. Hendrick” whenever he can. That includes the two instances in which he’s managed to reach Truck Series victory lane.

However, Caruth’s one-off with Hendrick came at Phoenix Raceway in November 2023, and as mentioned earlier, this was his most recent Xfinity start.

That will change Saturday (July 19), when Caruth steps behind the wheel of an Xfinity Series Chevrolet for the first time in a season and a half.

But it won’t be for Hendrick.

Caruth will drive a third Jordan Anderson Racing car, the No. 32, typically fielded for team owner Jordan Anderson, as well as road course aces Katherine Legge and Austin Green. According to the entry list, sponsorship will come from Events DC, not HendrickCars.com.

“So what?” I hear you ask. “Caruth’s still driving a Chevrolet, but he’s only in a JAR car because Hendrick isn’t fielding the No. 17 this week.”

That point would hold some merit if it weren’t for the fact that Hendrick’s No. 17 will be at “The Monster Mile” as well.

In a season where all four of Hendrick’s Cup Series drivers have made starts in the part-time car, Corey Day has also been running a part-time schedule in the car. Day is Caruth’s teammate at Spire, as he also runs a part-time Truck Series schedule in Spire’s all-star No. 7 truck.

Now, one more driver enters the Hendrick development pipeline. But it isn’t Caruth.

If you don’t know the name Jake Finch, you will on Saturday. The son of former team owner James Finch will make his Xfinity Series debut for Hendrick at Dover.

For some reason, since that one-off at Phoenix, Hendrick is reluctant to call on Caruth’s services in Xfinity competition, despite the seemingly closer-than-advertised relationship between Caruth and the Hendrick family. Instead, he’s been passed up for two up-and-coming talents who could use some development in the Truck Series, like Caruth has gotten before jumping into a powerhouse Xfinity ride.

Now, to be fair, just because Caruth has the HendrickCars.com sponsorship, it doesn’t mean he has any sort of Hendrick development contract like Day or Finch. But at the same time, it is a little strange to have as much backing from Hendrick as Caruth does and not seemingly receive any opportunity to drive for the team’s Xfinity program.

It’s not like Caruth did badly in his one-off at Phoenix either, as he started 13th and finished 14th — performance is not the reason Caruth isn’t getting the chance.

Has Hendrick forgotten about Caruth in favor of other hotshot talents like Day and Finch?

Of course, maybe there’s a chance Caruth doesn’t want it and/or isn’t ready for the opportunity yet. Having only visited Truck Series victory lane twice in two and a half seasons of full-time competition, his stats aren’t comparable to those of other drivers, such as Heim, whose stats are so good he shouldn’t even be racing a truck anymore.

But if you were to put together a top five of current full-time Truck Series drivers who could hold their own if they were promoted out of the Truck Series, Caruth has to appear on more than one person’s list. In a season completely dominated by Heim, Caruth has quietly begun to pick up the pace in an attempt to become one of the series’ top five best drivers heading into the playoff stretch.

While Heim has won a whopping five races this season, he lost out on one at Nashville Superspeedway when Caruth put on a clinic in defense in the final stage to unseat Heim from victory lane. While Heim has run away in laps led with 986, it’s Caruth who sits second with 189 circuits out front, just one ahead of Chandler Smith.

Sure, Caruth’s season is a little bit worse statistically than it was last season, but he certainly hasn’t hit any sort of true “regression” at all. He currently sits 13th in points, but is guaranteed at least a top 10 after his win locked him into the 2025 Truck Series playoffs.

So why won’t Hendrick take another chance on him?

The Day experiment hasn’t exactly been the biggest load of success and Finch, despite showing promise, hasn’t even sniffed a full-time ARCA Menards Series season, much less a Truck or Xfinity Series season. Caruth is more of a known commodity than either driver. Sure he may not be an immediate contender for victories, but neither are Finch or Day. And you can be sure Caruth will take care of his stuff and (at least attempt) to bring the car home in one piece if he can’t contend for the win.

Maybe Mr. H should take another look at the 23-year-old and give him another shot. Who knows, maybe he’ll surprise and be even more ready for promotion than any of us even thought.

It couldn’t hurt, right?

Truckin’ Tidbits

Here’s what you may have missed since the last time this section appeared in this column:

• Greg Van Alst will return to team ownership, this time shifting from ARCA to Truck Series competition. He will drive the Greg Van Alst Motorsports No. 35 Toyota at IRP, Bristol Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway. Van Alst plans to expand the program in 2026. It’s unclear where Van Alst’s trucks came from, nor whether or not “expanding the program” means a full-time run for next season.
• Tyler Tomassi and MBM Motorsports’ No. 69 will also return to competition at Talladega, though it is currently without a sponsor.
• Ram is considering hosting a tryout show for drivers, akin to Roush Racing: Driver X back in the day, to determine who will drive for the manufacturer. This might just be me reading to deep into it, but this reeks of Ram having trouble signing teams and drivers to float around a competition like this. Signing a team will automatically make its drivers Ram drivers. A show pitch like this implies that it hasn’t really been able to find teams to get onboard, but is now turning to individual drivers. Unless … the rumor of GMS Racing returning is true?
• Brenden Queen, affectionately known by fans as “Butterbean,” will make his first start of 2025, driving Spire’s all-star No. 07 truck at IRP. The 2024 CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car champion made three starts for TRICON Garage last season and currently competes full-time in ARCA for Pinnacle Racing Group.