Mark Martin becomes Rajah Caruth fan after impressive race, wants to share Gucci Mane playlist

During the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Atlanta on Saturday, Rajah Caruth earned himself a new fan. Mark Martin was watching, and he liked a whole lot of what he saw.

Caruth finished in eighth place. But his day included a ton of excitement, as he dodged disaster after disaster on the track.

Afterward, Mark Martin chimed in on Twitter, quote-tweeting a brief interview with Caruth where the young driver brought up his name. Suffice it to say, the former racing legend is quite the fan.

“Today [Rajah Caruth] made a fan for life out of me,” Martin wrote. “Some of the most car control I’ve seen in all my years. I wonder if he listens to any [Gucci Mane]. If not I’ve got a playlist to share.”

After the race, Rajah Caruth was asked about some close calls. Among others, he saved his car once when he got loose, managing to stay in the race without a huge mishap. He also dodged a Josh Williams wreck into the wall just in front of him.

Throughout it, Caruth just calmly picked up spots. He’s done that each of the last two weeks. Of the near misses, he said the following.

“I don’t know. I’ve been saying like which time?” Caruth said in a video shared by Matt Weaver. “It’s been too frequently the last couple weeks. But I don’t know. The car’s got great grip, so just was keeping up with it.”

Rajah Caruth has clearly been in the spotlight over the last two weeks, first at Daytona and then again at Atlanta. He’s looked the part.

But when asked if he can’t “win the show” the goal is to “be the show,” Caruth wasn’t so sure. He just wants to race well.

“I don’t totally agree with that. I’m here to win,” he said. “I don’t necessarily like all the spotlight or trying to be the most exciting, but definitely learned a lot. I was proud of being aggressive and not just sitting in line, because I watched too many of these races with guys just sitting in line. There’s being patient, but like you’ve got to be on the ball a little bit.

“That was my mentality. There’s times to be chill, but I was trying to be more aggressive, as calculated as possible.”

As for getting into the heart of the schedule, with the superspeedways in the rearview mirror for now, Rajah Caruth said the goal is to be competitive every week. You can’t take any of the tracks for granted.

“I mean it can’t be a lame duck. You can’t write them off, because they all matter,” he said. “It reminds me of the old Cup racing I watched. I shouldn’t say old, but watching whether it’s 2007 like Mark Martin trying to do it in the 8 car and just watching all how those guys were just big-picture throughout the whole season, you can’t write off races, right?

“You can’t write off the road courses, you can’t write off the speedways. But at the same time you can’t take yourself out of it. Have some self-preservation because you’ve got to live to fight another day. So that was kind of my mentality.”