Rajah Caruth is set to replace Kyle Busch in the Craftsman Truck Series’ Allegiance 200 at Nashville Superspeedway, driving the No. 7 HendrickCars.com truck for Spire Motorsports this Friday. The move comes as NASCAR grapples with Busch’s sudden death, while C
Kyle Busch’s absence will be felt again this Friday at Nashville Superspeedway, but the seat he was set to occupy has already begun moving forward.
For the Craftsman Truck Series’ Allegiance 200, Rajah Caruth will aim to do better behind the wheel of the No. 7 HendrickCars.com truck—an opportunity tied directly to Busch’s schedule with Spire Motorsports and the shock that followed Busch’s death.
Busch. one of NASCAR’s most decorated competitors. died suddenly less than a week after winning the 69th truck race of his career at Dover. His family said the cause was complications from severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. Social media filled quickly with tributes from fans, and the racing world continued to process the loss days later.
Busch was scheduled to compete in eight Truck Series races this season for Spire Motorsports. This past weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Corey Day filled in for Busch but crashed out on lap 47. Now, Caruth is set for a chance at Nashville.
Spire has not publicly announced that Caruth will fill in, but Caruth was listed as the driver of the No. 7 truck on NASCAR’s online roster viewer on Tuesday, May 26, with Brian Pattie as his crew chief.
Caruth, 23, will be stepping in at a difficult time for the organization and for the sport. He has competed full-time in the Truck Series in each of the past three seasons. but the Nashville start will be his first truck race of 2026 since switching over to a schedule in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. In that series, he has been splitting time driving for JR Motorsports and Jordan Anderson Racing.
This season in the O’Reilly series, Caruth has five top 10 finishes. He’ll also pull double duty this weekend, driving the No. 32 Chevrolet for JAR in Saturday’s O’Reilly race. In other words. the adjustment won’t be limited to just swapping cars—it will be managing two separate sets of expectations over back-to-back events.
His track record in trucks gives the seat some momentum. In previous years. Caruth ran well in the Truck Series. and for the past two years he competed full-time in the No. 71 for Spire. He won two races in the truck for Spire—both Las Vegas in 2024 and Nashville last year—along with eight other top five finishes for Spire. He finished in the top seven of the point standings in both seasons.
Those results carry extra weight because Busch’s ties to Spire run deep. The group’s headquarters was formerly the home of Kyle Busch Motorsports. which operated from 2010 through 2023 and won two championships in the truck series with Erik Jones and Christopher Bell. Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson was Busch’s spotter and agent early in his career.
Busch’s dominance across the national touring ranks also remains central to how NASCAR is measuring the loss. Across all three national touring series, Busch was NASCAR’s all-time leader in career victories with 234 combined wins. This season alone, he took the checkered flag in the No. 7 truck twice—also winning at Atlanta in February.
One more thread sits behind this weekend’s questions: a driver Busch mentored, Daniel Suarez, won in a Spire car on Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600—the first NASCAR Cup Series race held following Busch’s death.
Still. the biggest uncertainty for fans and teams isn’t only who takes Busch’s Truck Series seat for the next race. It also remains unclear who will fill the seat of Busch’s Cup Series car—renumbered from No. 8 to No. 33—at Nashville. Austin Hill drove the Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing on Sunday in the Coke 600, finishing 27th.
Caruth’s presence in the No. 7 truck this Friday will not replace Busch’s career record or the loss that has shaken the sport. But it will determine how Spire moves through the immediate stretch ahead—when competition continues, even as tributes keep coming.
Kyle Busch Rajah Caruth NASCAR Truck Series Allegiance 200 Nashville Superspeedway Spire Motorsports HendrickCars.com Brian Pattie Corey Day Sepsis Severe pneumonia O’Reilly Auto Parts Series JR Motorsports Jordan Anderson Racing