Rajah Caruth Triumphs: Wins First NASCAR Race at Las Vegas

On Friday, March 1st, Rajah Caruth won his first career NASCAR race in the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The race was the third race of the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. Caruth’s victory came in his 30th Series start since June of 2022.

With the win, Rajah Caruth became the second African American driver to win in the NASCAR Truck Series. Mentor and close friend Bubba Wallace was the first with his fall of 2013 victory at Martinsville Speedway. Caruth is only the third African American in 76 years to win a NASCAR National Series race. 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Wendell Scott became the first, winning at Jacksonville, Florida’s former Speedway Park in 1964.

Race Recap – Las Vegas

The monumental day started strong for Rajah Caruth. The 21-year-old secured his first Truck Series pole with a 30.501 second lap time; 0.001 seconds faster than second place Christian Eckes. His qualifying efforts bested that of Spire Motorsports teammate and all-time Series great Kyle Busch.

Shortly after 6:00 pm PT, the green flag flew for the 134-lap event. Caruth failed to lead the opening lap and slipped back before an early caution flew on Lap 3 for Bayley Currey. After restarting on Lap 8, the race ran clean to the end of Stage Two. Caruth rebounded to second place as ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski controlled the field.

Pit stops under the stage break resulted in Caruth regaining control of the top spot. Caruth, teammate Busch, hard-charging Corey Heim, and Majeski broke away from the field as the four battled for the lead. With under ten laps to go in Stage Two, Caruth lost control of the lead. He would ultimately finish the stint in 3rd place behind Majeski and Heim.

A final caution for incident flew one lap after the final stage restart due to Dean Thompson making hard contact with the turn-four wall. Majeski, Heim, Taylor Gray, Tyler Ankrum, Nick Sanchez, and Caruth broke away from the field on the green flag. With 45 laps to go, Caruth had fallen to 6th; his lowest running position of the day.

The six rising stars of NASCAR all looked to have a shot for the win, but green flag pit stops through a wrench in the night. Ty Majeski and Nick Sanchez were met with speeding penalties. Strong execution on and off pit road saw Caruth cycle back to first position.

He would go on to lead the final 21 laps en route to his first career NASCAR victory.

Dreams to Reality

Not long ago, Rajah Caruth was nothing more than a fan. While growing up in Washington, D.C., his interest in NASCAR blossomed from dressing up as Jimmie Johnson for Halloween to his family gifting a rig to compete on iRacing. His simulation success led to an opportunity in NASCAR’s “Drive for Diversity” youth development program, a group founded in 2004 that provides training opportunities for up-and-coming drivers. Kyle Larson, Nick Sanchez, Daniel Suarez, and Bubba Wallace are notable alumni of the program. Caruth was a member of the 2020 team, becoming the first iRacer to be selected since its inception.

Caruth piloted various legends cars and late models for Rev Racing in late 2019 and 2020, the competition partner of the Drive for Diversity program. In 2021, he was brought on to race the full ARCA Menards East season. Of the six drivers to make every start, rookie Caruth would finish 3rd in points with two Top 5s and five Top 10s in eight races. His progression continued up to the ARCA Menards Series in 2022. His first and lone season saw another standings finish of 3rd place.

One in the Big Leagues

A shot in NASCAR would come the following year, signing on with GMS Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series. The 2023 season saw glimpses of stardom with strong performances on various tracks. However, mixed luck and driver mistakes resulted in a 16th-place points finish with four Top 10s. News broke in August that GMS Racing would be shutting its doors at the end of the season. As a result, Caruth was left searching for a ride in 2024.

Spire Motorsports saw a massive expansion to begin the 2024 season following their acquisition of Kyle Busch Motorsports. A week and a half before the start of the NASCAR season, the team announced Caruth as their full-time entry of the No. 71 Chevrolet. His Truck is sponsored by Rick Hendrick’s HendrickCars.com for the full 23-race season.

Caruth is teammates with fellow full-time driver Chase Purdy. Kyle Busch competes part-time in the No. 7 Spire Truck with Corey LaJoie (other drivers to be determined). Rev Racing and Nick Sanchez also share a technical alliance with Spire Motorsports. Sanchez, Busch, and Caruth have won the first three races of the 2024 Truck Series schedule at Daytona International Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, respectively.

In addition to Caruth’s success in Trucks, he has raced in 19 NASCAR Xfinity Series races from April of 2022 to November of last year. 18 of the starts have come for Alpha Prime Racing with one start in the 2023 Phoenix finale for Hendrick Motorsports.

Rajah Caruth is currently a senior at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. The soon-to-be graduate targets more wins, a Playoff opportunity, and a shot at the 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship.