By David Morgan, Associate Editor
LEBANON, Tenn. – Rajah Caruth held off a hard charging Corey Heim and Layne Riggs in the closing laps of Friday night’s Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway to score his second career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory.
The driver of the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado ascended to the lead on the last round of pit stops at the conclusion of Stage 2 and while he pulled away early in the run, he would have to contend with Heim down the stretch, with Riggs also coming into the picture as they closed in on the finish.
Ultimately, the 22-year-old would have enough to keep both drivers behind him, crossing the line 0.518-seconds ahead to score his first win of 2025 and first since Las Vegas in March of last year.
“I didn’t expect that at all. Those guys were breathing down my neck that whole run,” Caruth said after climbing from his truck, victorious.
“My pit crew won that race….they won that race for us. Got us off pit road twice. Thanks to them. Thanks to Mr. H, Miss Linda, everybody at Hendrickcars.com. The men and women at Spire Motorsports.
“We’ve been off this year, but good to get a W. I’m out of breath. That was a lot of fun.”
Caruth added that with Heim, a four-time winner already this season and leader of over 800 laps through the first 12 races of the season, breathing down his neck, he just had to dig down and will himself to victory.
“I was just asking myself, how bad do you want it?” Caruth said of the battle at the end to hold off Heim.
“I just tried my best and we had clean air. Their stuff was better, but I just did my best. That was it.”
.@rajahcaruth_ holds on to win it! pic.twitter.com/HZbXwMEmXN
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) May 31, 2025
As for Heim, it looked for a while tonight that it was going to be yet another race win for the No. 11 team, having led 58 laps and won the second stage, but ultimately, the track position battle would be the key in the end, with Heim having to settle for second instead.
“We were certainly a lot better on the long runs tonight, so I knew that was going to kind of my opportunity coming down to the wire there,” Heim said of chasing Caruth down over the course of the closing laps.
“Just such a short stage and a straight forward strategy play on all parts there, so once you kind of lose the lead it is really tough to get it back until you hit lap traffic. Congrats to Rajah (Caruth). He did an awesome job to fend us off. I thought we had the best truck there at the end, but he made all of the right moves there defend from the lead. That was a lot of fun, and glad we could put a good show there for the fans. Huge thank you to TRICON Garage, Toyota and Safelite.”
Riggs rounded out the podium finishers, having rebounded from a tough night on pit road that saw him have to start the final stage in eighth place after a slow pit stop dropped him from second at the end of Stage 2.
The slow stop was the second of the night for the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team, with Riggs noting afterwards that despite having battled back to third, it was a bittersweet ending given the ground they were able to chew up late in the race as he tried to overcome their setback.
“This was probably the biggest stinger so far. One of the biggest stingers so far,” said Riggs.
“I feel like that’s probably the most dominant truck I’ve had and not win the race. Last time I felt like that was at Bristol and we did win. So, it just stings when I felt like I did everything flawless on the racetrack and we just gave it away on pit road.”
Afterwards, Riggs explained that the issue they had on pit road was similar to the issue they experienced at Texas earlier this season.
“It looked like they couldn’t get the right front tire on, which is the same problem that we had at Texas,” he said. “Came in leading at the end of the first stage at Texas and we came out 25th and just felt like we kinda did that same thing today, so we definitely gotta clean it up. ”
Another element of the closing stages of the race was the battle between Heim and Riggs as Riggs was charging forward and Heim was trying to chase down Caruth for the lead.
Both drivers have had plenty of history this season, culminating in a post-race face-to-face confrontation after the race at Rockingham, but were able to race hard, but clean on Friday night in Nashville.
Afterwards, Riggs walked over to Heim on pit road, with the two shaking hands briefly. Heim noted that he was glad to see a clean run from Riggs for a change.
“I think that’s the standard, to be honest with you. I mean, I think it’s the standard to not clean somebody out when you’re next to ’em,” Heim said. “So, it’s nice to see that he is improving and not wrecking people. I think it’s the first time in like four weeks he doesn’t try to wreck someone in the last lap, so, it’s good. I’m good. I’m happy for him, for sure.”
Daniel Hemric would finish the race in fourth, with Corey Day rounding out the top-five finishers.
The remainder of the top-10 went to Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Ty Majeski, Bayley Currey, and Grant Enfinger.
Friday’s race was slowed for caution just twice for cause, once on Lap 3 for an oil leak from Frankie Muniz’s truck, which would see him retire shortly thereafter, as well as a crash involving Jack Wood and Akinori Ogata on Lap 56.
Next up for the Truck Series will be a trip to Michigan International Speedway on June 7 at Noon ET on FOX.
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