Rajah Caruth overcomes pit-road miscue, concludes Talladega with top-five finish

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Adrenaline and a sense of what-if best defined Rajah Caruth's day following Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoffs contest at Talladega Superspeedway. And while the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet pilot concluded the race with a fourth-place performance after working around a last-lap wreck, the possibility of seizing a victory and locking in a Championship 4 berth wasn't out of the picture. "I'm pissed, man," Caruth said following the race. "I took myself out of the game and we were right there with Christian [Eckes] and Grant [Enfinger] and some of the best plate racers and I sped, so I'm just pretty disappointed myself for that. But good to rebound for a top five. Still being below the cut. Not where I wanted to be, but could be a lot worse, for sure." RELATED: Race results | At-track photos A brief pause to watch former teammate Grant Enfinger burn the rubber down following his hometown triumph only fueled the what-could-have-been notion for the 22-year-old. The moment could only be added to what was a lengthy and action-packed day for the Georgia native. It was a slow brew for Caruth's No. 71 Chevy through the opening portions of the Love's RV Stop 225, with the No. 71 Chevrolet starting 13th and finishing Stage 1 in 16th. However, Caruth concluded Stage 2 in sixth, well in line to perhaps make potential race-winning noise as the final stage began. But trouble quickly bubbled. A speeding penalty on pit road, coupled with a blown left-front tire after attempting to slow the No. 71 Chevy down, forced Caruth, a driver fighting for playoff positioning, back to square one. "At the end of the day, you know, the hardest thing to do for him, for sure, and even for us on the pit box, is just stay patient,"  No. 71 crew chief Chad Walter told NASCAR.com. "Ultimately, it comes down to about a lap and a half. We didn't want to put ourselves in the position that we did when we had the miscue on pit road entry. It's hard for these guys to get experience with that so sometimes you gotta learn the hard way. We were able to take advantage of a caution, get a wave around, get ourselves back on lead lap and then ultimately be aggressive and make some friends when we needed to to be able to put ourselves in position to avoid a wreck and come out with a decent finish. "Certainly, 50 seconds before the end of this race, I felt like we were not going to be in a good spot, and we ended up being OK. But, you know, I don't like other people's misfortunes to be the reason we finished races. But we'll take it, we'll move on, and we'll get ready for Miami and for Martinsville." Crafty dodging work during a last-lap wreck at the start/finish line helped keep Caruth's finish intact. After entering Talladega eight points underneath the playoff elimination line, Caruth leaves the Alabama superspeedway with a slight improvement, now being five points behind Ty Majeski for the fourth and final Championship 4 spot. Even still, there's optimism aplenty for Caruth and the No. 71 team as the young driver continues to learn the drafting ropes; in two career Truck races at Talladega, Caruth now holds two finishes inside the top 15. Now, the name of the game will be about preparation for Homestead-Miami Speedway, scheduled for Oct. 26 (Noon ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). MORE: Truck Series standings | Truck Series schedule And perhaps, with a little tune-up work, it'll be Caruth burning the truck rubber in playoff victory fashion. "We're going to be busy Monday at the simulators, using all the tools that we have at our disposal, working with our teammates to try to come up with the best homestead HendrickCars.com Chevy we can get," Walter told NASCAR.com. "He's only been there once, but thankfully, that's more than none, and usually, we're pretty good at the intermediate stuff. So, brand new truck going to Homestead. I got a lot of faith in it." "All hands on deck for Homestead," Caruth said. " ... I'm confident in my ability to do so and see what happens when we get there. But nothing stopping during these two weeks. Just gotta keep going."