Before the 2025 season ended, Rajah Caruth was confirmed as the replacement for Connor Zilisch behind the wheel of the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, with Zilisch now competing full-time in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing. But his deal was only for 23 of the 33 races on the 2026 schedule.
The other 10 races were split up between the four Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series drivers, but Caruth retained his full-time status, and thus his postseason eligibility, by signing with Jordan Anderson Racing to drive the No. 32 Chevrolet in those 10 events.
Three of those races took place earlier this season on three consecutive weekends, with William Byron running the No. 88 car at Phoenix Raceway and Kyle Larson doing so at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway, winning at the former to bolster the team's position in the owner standings.
After Caruth returned to JR Motorsports for the two races at Martinsville Speedway and Rockingham Speedway, scoring a season-best finish of fourth place at the latter, he is once again set to shift back to Jordan Anderson Racing for consecutive race weekends, starting with Saturday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Rajah Caruth set for second Jordan Anderson stint
Kyle Larson is set to be back behind the wheel of the No. 88 Chevrolet this weekend, although he won't attempt triple duty by competing in Friday night's Craftsman Truck Series race.
Next weekend at Kansas Speedway, Byron is set to be back in the No. 88 HendrickCars.com car. Caruth, who has shared the No. 32 car with team owner Jordan Anderson himself as well as Andrew Patterson and Trackhouse Racing Cup driver Ross Chastain so far this season, is set to return to JR Motorsports for the following weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Through nine races this season, Caruth finds himself in 10th place in the point standings, 42 points above the playoff cut line with four top 10 finishes. The No. 88 team is second in the owner standings, comfortably 107 points ahead of the cutoff, while the No. 32 team is 14th, 36 points below it but still firmly in the mix.
Worth noting, all seven of Caruth's remaining starts with Jordan Anderson Racing this year are set to come during the 24-race regular season. With the Hendrick Motorsports Cup Series drivers ineligible to run the No. 88 car during the playoffs, Caruth is set to run the car full-time over the course of the nine-race postseason, plus the final two regular season events.
With all due respect to Jordan Anderson Racing, this is great news for the 23-year-old Caruth in his first full season as NASCAR's second highest level, should he manage to qualify for the postseason, as JR Motorsports have proven to build championship-caliber race cars, year after year. 2024 series champion Justin Allgaier is the current runaway points leader with three victories and three other top four efforts.
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