The last, and only, time Camrie Caruso visited the NHRA winner’s circle was exactly a year ago at the Arizona Nationals.
On March 26, 2023, the sophomore drag racer powered past Deric Kramer, Cristian Cuadra, Matt Hartford and Bo Butner en route to victory. By doing so, she became the second woman to win a Pro Stock national event — Erica Enders is the first.
“Honestly, we just felt really good working together — me and my team. To know we could work together as well as we did so early on was great,” Caruso said.
Since that day, she’s kept her Wally on display in her kitchen, anxiously waiting for a second one to stack up next to her modest trophy collection.
It’s fair to say Caruso expected to be back in the winner’s circle quickly after her triumph in the desert. She rode the momentum it gave her for a while, picking up a win several weeks later at the inaugural Pro Stock All-Star Callout.
But that’s where the dry spell began.
In the latter half of the 2023 season, it was nothing but first-round or quarterfinal exits for Caruso and her KB Titan Racing crew.
“It sucked. To know we could win — we won twice that year and I think we had a No. 1 qualifier — and to know that we couldn’t get back there last year to save our lives, like it killed me,” Caruso said. “It was so frustrating, because I was like, what the heck happened? I don’t understand how we could go downhill so fast.”
The third-generation racer ended her second year of Pro Stock competition 11th in the standings, following her rookie-of-the-year performance the prior season.
“It definitely was not good for any of us and it really sucked to have that problem,” Caruso said, reflecting on the trial by fire.
It didn’t start out much better at this year’s Gatornationals, either.
Caruso did not qualify for the event at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway and was forced to digest the troubling situation from the sidelines.
“We had a struggle at first, but we’re just really trying to bounce back as a team and we’re making progress,” Caruso said. “We know what we’re capable of and we’re gonna keep on pushing.”
She mentioned that the team has been testing and now has a better handle on the new car they debuted at the Gatornationals. Caruso’s third-place finish in qualifying and quarterfinal performance during the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Dragstrip in Pomona, Calif., confirmed their optimism.
“I think we have it figured out, we have a good chassis set up now and we’re doing what we need to do,” Caruso said. “I think that this weekend is a real good possibility of us repeating what we did last year.”