JR Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth sneaked his way into the Chase, earning a 32nd place finish. Caruth had finished in the top ten three times on superspeedways this season, so while he entered with the lowest chance to make the cut, his team must have had this race circled.
Initially, everything went right for the #88 team. Caruth nabbed his first career pole in the afternoon, which put him at the front for a majority of the race. This track position led to the #88 scoring 18 stage points, including a stage two win. While he performed well, it was safe to say luck was on his side. Mostly.
At the conclusion of stage one, Big Machine Racing’s Patrick Staropoli spun at the back of the field, taking competitor Brent Crews out with him. Crews would later return to the race in stage three, but he would be 30+ laps behind. Considering Caruth was 14 points behind the 11th place Crews, this event eliminated one driver from the contention.
As mentioned, Caruth earned ten bonus points by winning stage two. Ironically, this wasn’t the best thing to happen to him in the stage. During the middle of the stage, Hendrick Motorsports’ Corey Day would spin at the front of the field, collecting Sammy Smith, and William Sawalich. Just like Crews, Sawalich was also 14 points ahead of Caruth entering the race. With the combination of scoring 18 stage points, and his two competitors crashing out, this alone gave the #88 an advantage.
Of course, when everything is going right, at some point bad luck has to creep in. With five laps to go, that is exactly what happened. When Rajah made an attempt to take the lead over his teammate Kvapil, his other teammate Allgaier would give him a “bad push”. This was worst case scenario for team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. Caruth would suffer major damage to the right rear of his car, which of course took him out of race winning contention. Luckily due to the misfortune of other drivers earlier on, it gave the #88 a cushion to where this incident didn’t ruin his chances. After the wreck, Caruth was still seven points ahead of both Crews and Sawalich.
In his post race interview, Rajah mentioned that he was “bummed” by the late race incident. He gave props to his team for bringing him a fast car on the night, and he had lots of confidence for what could have been. Sure he didn’t have the finish to the race he wanted, but he still accomplished the first step of the season long goal.
With the 32nd place finish, Caruth was able to earn the final Chase spot by just three points. With all of the good luck on his side, his one mistake almost cost him. But it didn’t, and now he’s running for a championship. Caruth will start the chase with 2,020 points, 80 points behind the first place Justin Allgaier.