Rajah Caruth’s day at Martinsville Speedway ended early after he hit the wall in Stage 2. His No. 71 Spire Motorsports truck was damaged beyond repair. Despite entering the race with a 14-point advantage, the young racing phenom fell out of the 2025 playoffs.While exiting Turn 4 on Lap 73, Caruth made incidental contact with fellow racer Kaden Honeycutt. Caruth’s car suffered a cut on the left-rear tire from the impact and went spinning into the SAFER barrier near Turn 1. Later, his truck was towed back to the garage area.Caruth knew it was just the nature of the sport, and there wasn’t a lot that he could have done. But still, the driver was 'heartbroken'. Unaware of his initial points advantage, Caruth told the reporters (00:40),“I don’t know what it all looked like. We’ll see… but maybe it wasn’t meant to be today.”“Definitely heartbroken, for sure,” Rajah Caruth continued (1:03). “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.”In the end, Caruth was awarded a disappointing P34 finish. He made the playoffs through a victory at Nashville, which came in May, marking the second win of his career, that too in his third full season in the Craftsman Truck Series.Next up for the 23-year-old from Washington, D.C. is the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Scheduled for October 31, the 150-lap feature will be televised on Fox Sports 1 (7:30 pm ET) with live radio updates on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.Rajah Caruth bags part-time ride with Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s NASCAR team in 2026Rajah Caruth will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Xfinity Series team (soon to be called the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series) JR Motorsports, for the 2026 season. Although part-time, the number of races and the exact schedule are yet to be revealed.This isn’t the first time Caruth is going to run an Xfinity car. He owns 22 previous Xfinity starts, with his best finishes being a pair of P12s at Martinsville in 2022 and 2023. Besides, he has driven for several Chevrolet Xfinity Series teams, including Hendrick Motorsports and Alpha Prime Racing. Sharing the news on X (formerly known as Twitter), veteran journalist Toby Christie wrote,“Rajah Caruth will go part-time behind the wheel of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet with HendrickCars.com sponsorship during the 2026 #NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series."The No. 88 was previously driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jr. himself. Usually, he competes in at least one race each year with the iconic number. However, that didn’t happen this year, as the two-time Xfinity Series champion got caught up between his jobs as a sportscaster with TNT Sports and Amazon Prime.