Caruth’s Truck Championship 4 hopes dashed after contact from Honeycutt

Rajah Caruth's Championship 4 hopes came to an end after a cut left-rear tire suffered from contact with fellow playoff driver Kaden Honeycutt during Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. Exiting Turn 4 at Lap 73, Caruth and Honeycutt made incidental contact, flattening Caruth's left-rear tire. He went spinning into Turn 1 and into the SAFER barrier, suffering damage at both ends of his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. RELATED: Race results | At-track photos Caruth attempted to limp away from the incident, but after consultation with safety crews on track, his night was over and his truck was towed back to the garage area. "Just tight racing with steel bodies and stuff you can't really rub. You'll cut a tire," Caruth said after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. "And as soon as it cut, it was on the rim, so I kind of was just out of control. So not anything deliberate obviously, just things happen and hate I was on the bad end of it." The 23-year-old from Washington, D.C. entered the Round of 8 finale second on the provisional playoff grid, 14 points above the elimination line. A Lap 29 restart in Stage 1 resulted in heavy nose damage for Caruth after front-row restarter Layne Riggs missed a shift three rows forward. The contact altered the handling of his No. 71 Chevrolet for the rest of the evening. Still, Caruth was running inside the top 10 at the time of his incident, but the crash ultimately put an end to his title chances in 2025. "Definitely heartbroken, for sure," Caruth said. "It'd be different if it was something that I did, if I messed up, but it was pretty much out of my control. Definitely a heartbreaker." Caruth made the playoffs via a win at Nashville Superspeedway in May, the second of his career in his third full-time season. He has 12 top 10s in 2025, tying last year's clip. This week, Caruth announced his plans to compete full-time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series (currently the Xfinity Series) in 2026, splitting time with JR Motorsports and Jordan Anderson Racing. MORE: Caruth on 2026 plans Honeycutt eventually advanced to the Championship 4, earning the edge on a tiebreaker over Layne Riggs thanks to his second-place finish Friday night. But the driver of the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota was remorseful about his earlier contact with Caruth. "I was pretty mad at myself, to be honest. I really hate that," Honeycutt said. "I didn't want any of that to happen. I know me and him came off the corner pretty close, and I really just need to look and see if he tracked out enough or if I just came up into him. So I'm definitely going to talk to him about that. I hate that it happened. He's a good buddy. Thankfully, we were able to move past that and just execute all night and put ourselves in a spot to be tied to go on to Phoenix." Caruth was credited with 34th position for Friday's 200-lapper in Virginia.