Rajah Caruth and a bittersweet night at Daytona - RAW CHILI

At Daytona, Rajah Caruth had to make up at least 15 points to have a shot at the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase for the championship.

Well, he started the day on a high note by securing pole position. After that, it seemed like everything was going his way. He scored 18 out of a possible 20 stage points, which was huge for his Chase hopes.

Two of the drivers he was chasing also suffered significant damage in early wrecks (Brent Crews and William Sawalich), and now he suddenly had a shot at his first-career win without even having to worry about his position inside the Chase.

Caruth was running second in a JR Motorsports 1-2-3 with teammate Carson Kvapil leading and Justin Allgaier behind in third. But it all went wrong with three laps to go, as Caruth got sideways off a big push from Allgaier.

The No. 88 spun and slammed the wall, leaving Caruth with a torn up race car and a 32nd-place finish. Thanks to his work in the earlier stages, he still made it into the Chase by a mere five points, but there were few smiles to be had.

Caruth and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. spoke on pit road after the race, and were joined by Allgaier in a impromptu team meeting.

“I felt pretty calm all night and was in a great spot,” said Caruth after the race. “Coming to a white flag or two to go and don’t know if I just got a bad push or what. Looking at it here….yeah, he just got me in the tail a little bit and obviously wasn’t on purpose, just a bummer because we were in a really good spot. Thankfully, still able to make the Chase, and huge thanks to everybody at JRM. Like Carson [Kvapil] said, our engines have been super strong and really proud of the effort out of this whole company to have such fast cars. I hate that we tore this thing up because it was really good and I wanted to take it to Talladega, but that’s all right. I know my guys and gals at JRM will build a good bullet for the next one.”

Caruth has spent the 2026 season split between the JRM No. 88 and the Jordan Anderson Racing No. 32 Chevrolet. He just earned a career-best finish of second at Iowa, but that first-career win still eludes him. With his Daytona effort, that means JR Motorsports has all four of its full-time drivers in the Chase.

Caruth is the No. 12 and final seed after the points reset, but he’s actually the No. 3 seed in the owner’s standings.

“There was a couple of times early in the year that I threw away some points, so glad it mostly capitalized tonight,” added Caruth. “In the moment, I’m pretty bummed about the end of the race because I felt we were in a great spot, but we’ll go to a new chapter tomorrow and get to work.”

Watch: Florida native Chastain calls Daytona pole a ‘life achievement’