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

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.