Gio Ruggiero is the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Gio Ruggiero earned Rookie of the Year honors with the final checkered flag flying in the 2025 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season Friday.
The 20-year-old TRICON Garage driver amassed a win at Talladega, 7 top-five finishes, 11 Top-10 finishes, 104 laps led and an 11th-place points finish in 2025.
Ruggiero started the season with a second-place finish in the season opener at Daytona. Despite not making the playoffs, Gio Ruggiero continued the trend of a rookie winning a race — started by Layne Riggs, who won twice last season.
Ruggiero competed in the ARCA Menard Series East, the national ARCA Menards Series and the CARS Pro Late Model Tour prior to racing Trucks. Although the Truck season didn’t end well, with a 31st-place finish after a crash on lap 118, he is on track to future stardom akin to his teammate, Corey Heim.
“He’s very very serious. He’s dedicated to his craft and very focused. It’s exciting to see him perfect his craft. We look forward to see him do it next year,” Tyler Gibbs said.
Other 2025 Truck rookie candidates were Toni Breidinger, Connor Mosack, Frankie Muniz, Andres Perez de Lara and Dawson Sutton.
Erik Jones was the only rookie to simultaneously win the championship in the same season — in 2015.
Past NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year Winners
2025: Gio Ruggiero
2024: Layne Riggs
2023: Nick Sanchez
2022: Corey Heim
2021: Chandler Smith
2020: Zane Smith
2019: Tyler Ankrum
2018: Myatt Snider
2017: Chase Briscoe
2016: William Byron
2015: Erik Jones
2014: Ben Kennedy
2013: Ryan Blaney
2012: Ty Dillon
2011: Joey Coulter
2010: Austin Dillon
2009: Johnny Sauter
2008: Colin Braun
2007: Willie Allen
2006: Erik Darnell
2005: Todd Kluever
2004: David Reutimann
2003: Carl Edwards
2002: Brendan Gaughan
2001: Travis Kvapil
2000: Kurt Busch
1999: Mike Stefanik
1998: Greg Biffle
1997: Kenny Irwin Jr.
1996: Bryan Reffner
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Dominic Aragon View All
Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.
From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book "All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story" with racer Geoff Bodine.
Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.