NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Camrie Caruso admits that the accident in Phoenix that left her with a broken leg was indeed a setback, but she won’t dare use it as a crutch when it comes to evaluating her results. After months of rehabilitation and physical therapy, Caruso returned to the tour in Indy, but has just one round win in five appearances.

“We’re obviously not where we want to be, but we’re making steps in the right direction,” said Caruso. “I can see some progress, especially this weekend. As for my leg, it’s fine. It hurts a little when its cold outside and if I walk on it a lot, but it doesn’t hurt at all when I drive the car. It’s a non-issue.”

It's not secret to anyone who follows the sport Pro Stock, as much as any class in the sport is a game of inches. With most fields separated by five to eight hundredths of a second, every thousandth counts. Caruso knows that well as she qualified on the bump spot in her Indy return but has steadily climbed to a best of No. 10 at the recent event in Dallas. Starting from the bottom half of the field makes for a tough day during Sunday’s eliminations as Caruso has had to race the quickest cars in the class and do so without the benefit of lane choice.

“Honestly, I don’t know what I need to do to get back to where we can win races again,” said Caruso, who won the 2023 Phoenix event and later won the Pro Stock specialty race in Chicago during her sophomore season. “For the most part, I’ve been able to hit my shift points on time, and my lights are something that I keep working on. Pro Stock can be a roller coaster and you just hope the lows don’t last too long. I tend to be a black and white person so I have to tell myself to keep on pushing.”

One area where Caruso has had success is in marketing and sponsorships. She taught herself the finer points of drag race markeing and has succeeded in bringing a number of corporate partners to her program including Big Jeff Audio, True Brands, Fuel Jewels, Gray Contractors, VP Fuels, AEON Laser, GFR, and others.

“I’m proud of what I’ve done when it comes to marketing but it’s hard. It’s very hard,” she says. “Sometimes, I feel like we’re in a weird spot at far as drag racing goes. There are plenty of companies out here to go around and there are a lot of opportunities for business-to-business relationships that benefit everyone. At the same time, you have some people who don’t want to talk business because they’re afraid of someone stealing their sponsor. When I approach a company, I’m more about ‘What sort of opportunities can we create? What sort of problems can we solve together?’ That’s what I’m about.”

Caruso is just 26 years old so it’s almost a given that her best days are ahead of her. She’s been an integral part of an impressive youth movement in the Pro Stock class, and has no plans to give that up anytime soon.

“I’m working on my program for next year right now,” she said. “I work my butt off on this stuff and I’m just hoping we can get all the pieces in place for next season. I don’t give up easily.”