Night of Firsts: Rajah Caruth races to Truck Series victory in Las Vegas
It was a night of firsts for 21-year-old Rajah Caruth.
The Washington, D.C. native won both his first career pole and first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, locking himself into the playoffs in the process. Caruth took advantage of penalties incurred by Kyle Busch and Ty Majeski during the final sequence of green-flag pit stops to grab his first checkered flag in NASCAR's top-three series.
Hometown driver and heavy favorite Kyle Busch finished 15th, while Majeski, who won both stage one and stage two, clawed his way back to 10th. Tyler Ankrum finished in the runner-up spot, shrinking Caruth's lead to as little as eight tenths of a second on the final lap, but it wasn't enough.
"It's surreal," Caruth said while standing on the front stretch after the climbing out of his truck. "Thank you so much to HendrickCars.com and Mr H for putting me in this thing. Can't thank my family enough, so many people have helped me get here. More to come for sure."
"Congratulations to Rajah," runner-up Tyler Ankrum said. "He's an awesome driver. Just wish it could've been us."
Caruth's rookie campaign in 2023 with GMS Racing picked up steam towards the end of the season, but only bore four top-10 finishes and a 16th place points finish. In 2024, Caruth is guaranteed to finish 10th in points at the lowest and has an average finish of fourth through the first three races of this season.
"Huge congratulations to Rajah, he earned every bit of this tonight," said Corey Heim. "He drove his butt off and was really clean all night, and was there at the end."
Heim was shockingly slow in qualifying, starting 23rd, but crept his way into the top five as the race went on. Taylor Gray also collected his second top-five finish of the season, placing fourth, with his TRICON Garage teammate and full-time Cup Series driver Christopher Bell finishing fifth.
The other Cup Series regular in the field, Zane Smith, finished eighth driving for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. Bayley Currey was a victim of incidents two weeks in a row, finishing 28th after an early spin.
Caruth will get a chance for back-to-back wins on Mar. 16, when the Truck Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for the Weather Guard Truck Race. The race will air at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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