Rajah Caruth brings added confidence to EchoPark Speedway

HAMPTON, Ga. -- It took all of one start in the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet for the popular young driver Rajah Caruth to score his best career finish (10th) and first career top-10 in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The former full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver is racing just 23 of 33 events with JR Motorsports this season, but was certainly energized by the Daytona debut. RELATED: EchoPark starting lineup | Weekend schedule The 23-year-old, two-time winner in the Truck Series is back behind the wheel this weekend at EchoPark Speedway (Sat., 5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and brings some extra confidence to the 1.54-mile drafting track. “Checked some boxes or maybe answered some questions I had about really running up front in an O’Reilly [Auto Parts Series] car,’’ Caruth said. “I ran the fall race [at EchoPark] for Jordan Anderson but I wasn’t running in the top-10 all day. So it [Daytona] really answered some questions I had from my years of Truck (Series) plate racing. “It was great. Unfortunately got caught up in some other folks’ mess but to finish in the top-10 was great and really showed how fast all our cars were and how much the work at Hendrick Motorsports shop and JRM closed the gap to the RCR cars. I felt like we could take the fight to them last weekend. Didn’t work out obviously, but I’m very confident going into this weekend that one of us can get the job done.’’