Camrie Caruso dismissed any notion of a sophomore slump for her and her team in 2023. The 2022 NHRA Rookie of the Year made history at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports park when she captured her first career win in Pro Stock at the track’s final race, powering her Powerbuilt Tools / Tequila Comisario Camaro to a win over Bo Butner in the final round to become just the second woman to win Pro Stock.
“I’m just excited and thankful, and I was really hoping we’d start the year off with a really good bang,” Caruso said.
“There’s just a whole bunch of people here that I couldn’t have done it without, my team and the partners. It was a great day of racing. We said last night after Q3, I was like, ‘Hey, we got to win this because I want hibachi tonight.’ And Mike said we were going to win it and we did. It was awesome, and I’m just thankful and blessed to have the team and the partners I have.”
Caruso had her work cut out for her on the road to her first victory. After taking down Deric Kramer handily in the opening round with a solid 6.564 at 210 miles per hour, minor controversy surrounded Caruso when staging against No. 1 qualifier Cristian Cuadra in round two. Caruso went in, lighting both pre-stage and stage bulbs immediately, which in turn would count Cuadra out as he was unable fully stage his racecar in the seven seconds that are allowed once the driver in the other lane is fully staged. The KB Titan driver admitted it was an honest mistake on her part.
“Honestly, I just took too much of the first bulb,” Caruso admitted. “And as soon as I put my line lock on, it moved a little bit and turned down both bulbs, and there we were. It wasn’t intentional. I did go over and say I was sorry and that it wasn’t intentional at all. I don’t like to really play starting line games because I’ve probably messed myself up, to be honest. I’m still new at this, and we’re really thankful for the win, but it was just a mistake.”
Caruso had to get her head back in the game for the semifinals as she matched up against the best car on the property in eliminations, driven by Matt Hartford. Hartford tied low elapsed time of the event with a stout 6.552, then backed that up with a 6.559 in the second round, which would be a full three-hundredths quicker than the next best run in that round. However, Caruso was up for the task as she strapped a (.017) light to Hartford’s (.037) winning on a holeshot, running a 6.568 at 210 to Hartford’s quicker but losing 6.566 at 210 to advance into her second career final round in Pro Stock.
In the last, ever Pro Stock final at Wild Horse Pass, Caruso, whose first and only final came at Houston last season, took on Bo Butner, who was searching for his first win in Pro Stock since 2019. Butner took down reigning Pro Stock champ Erica Erica Enders in the opening round, followed up by wins over Fernando Cuadra Jr and Kyle Koretsky to set up a classic KB Titan vs. Elite matchup in the final round.
Caruso proved to be too much for Butner in the final as Caruso used a starting line advantage, cutting a (.044) light to Butner’s (.054) and outran him by one-thousandths of a second on the racetrack, laying down a 6.592 at 210 to Butner’s 6.593 at 209 to capture her first career win in Pro Stock and become the first Pro Stock driver in history to score their first career win in Phoenix.
“Honestly, I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t really sure if I won or not until I pulled off the racetrack,” Caruso said. “I like to just focus on going straight, so I don’t really look around. But it was so awesome, and I just went up there. And it was another round, and I tried my best to do my job because I knew the guys were going to do theirs.”
With the monkey of winning her first race off her back, Caruso admits that the pressure to perform and live up to expectations with the merger of her team and KB racing in the offseason to form KB Titan Racing was definitely weighing on her mind.
“Not going to lie, Mike and Dave have history and with Tanner Gray and all of that, and they have been very successful together,” Caruso said. “To know that, okay, I get to work with both of them, now I need to hold up my end of the bargain because they always hold up theirs. I was a little worried this season just because they’ve had so much success already together. And then the whole KB Titan team is extremely successful. My teammates all have wins and number one qualifiers and championships, so I just wanted to be able to hold up the name and do good for all of them.”
Caruso hopes to keep the momentum going as the tour now heads to Pomona, California, and the all-new rebranded In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip for the NHRA Winternationals, the same place where Caruso was named Rookie of the Year at the end of last season. She’s also looking forward to competing in the all-new Mission Foods 2Fast 2Tasty Challenge for a chance at the money and championship bonus points for the countdown.
“We’re really excited,” Caruso said. “I know that the 2Fast2Tasty is such a cool thing that they’ve added for us this year. And we’re really excited to participate in it. And honestly, it’s going to be a great time. And I just want to say thank you to everybody who’s been a part of it. Ewan, Sadie, my whole team, my family, all my partners, and my teammates. I’m really thankful.”
