After a difficult outing last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie Gio Ruggiero has flipped the script, putting together an impressive run in Saturday’s Heart of Health Care 200 at Kansas Speedway.
The Seekonk, Massachusetts-native was initially credited with fifth, but after second-place finisher Layne Riggs was disqualified in post-race inspection, the TRICON Garage driver was promoted to fourth.
It’s the second top-five result of the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series campaign for Ruggiero, and his first since finishing runner-up in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway in February — his series debut.
In his maiden NASCAR Truck Series ventures, the 18-year-old racer has been turning some heads with his pace, collecting four top-10 finishes in the first nine events of the season — coming at four very different racetracks in Daytona, Bristol, Rockingham, and now Kansas.
All-in-all, Ruggiero is in the Truck Series this season to learn, something that the driver of the No. 17 First Auto Group Toyota Tundra TRD Pro did a lot of on Saturday night.
“I learned it is definitely pretty racy, especially on the restarts here — using all of the lanes up. It gets pretty aggressive there,” Ruggiero said post-race. “That was fun. I tried to dig all day, and fight hard with our truck.”
After fading outside the top-10 by the end of the race’s first stage, Ruggiero, just like his teammate Corey Heim, had struggles on pit road, which left the No. 17 Toyota Tundra outside the top-20 at the end of Stage 2.
The first-year driver continued to make progress throughout the pack in the race’s final stage, but it was ultimately a caution for Frankie Muniz during a cycle of green-flag pit stops that allowed Ruggiero to gain a heap of track position.
Suddenly, the No. 17 Toyota Tundra was sitting inside the top-five with less than 30 laps remaining, which allowed Ruggiero to mix it up at the front of the pack and hold on for a solid finish.
“We were in the back for a while, so just proud of my guys for never giving up,” Ruggiero said. “The pit crew did a really good job. We had some really solid stops and kept picking up spots on pit road, so that helped us as well. It was a step in the right direction for sure, but we need to run better next weekend.”
Leaving Kansas Speedway, Ruggiero sits a solid 12th-place in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings, just 25 markers below the bubble for the postseason cutline.
