BRISTOL, Tenn. -- When it comes to the playoffs across all three of NASCAR's top divisions, making the most out of every race to get points is the next best thing besides winning. When you're on the outside looking in, the task can be daunting to make that ground up, let alone with two races left before elimination.
Rajah Caruth came into Bristol four points below the cutline for the Craftsman Truck Series, which suggested he'd need to either be perfect or make his bed and lie in it.
As it turns out, perfection wasn't needed, just being clutch. That started in qualifying, where he piloted his HendrickCars.com Spire truck to a third-place spot on the grid, behind only young phenom Connor Zilisch on the pole and fellow playoff driver Corey Heim. Caruth was impressive in the first stage, making his move in lapped traffic to get the stage one win -- the first overall for his career.
In stage two, he was mired a bit in traffic after pit stops but managed his way back through the field to finish in third, adding more to his points bank and quickly making up his deficit.
He did more of the same in the final stage but had to earn it. Heim battled with Caruth after eventual winner Layne Riggs drove away from the field, resulting in a photo finish for second with Heim on the right side of it.
Caruth got his first top five since June, coming at a great time when considering where he was in points entering Bristol. Despite getting third, he could walk away from Bristol plus 35 to the cut line.
While he made the most of it, he wasn't satisfied and felt he left more out on the track.
"I had a chance to win, and I didn't execute it well," Caruth said while rewatching the battle with Heim on the infield jumbotron. "Just replaying what I could have done differently on those restarts."
When asked how he felt about his truck and knowing when he had something special to bring to the track, he said, "I knew it [was special] when I woke up this morning".
With one of his best runs of the season, Caruth can now breathe easier heading into next week's elimination race at Kansas Speedway. He finished in 13th earlier in the season, which would be a solid points day to make it into the next round, and the Las Vegas race he won in March was a similar type of racetrack.
Regardless of what happens next week, what he did was an accomplishment at Bristol -- and he's now on the inside looking out, with his playoff fate in his own hands.