Rajah Caruth still basking in big win at Las Vegas, hopes for more
He had received over 600 congratulatory text messages, thousands more on social media, and a request from the NASCAR Hall of Fame for an item to display.
Yes, Rajah Caruth’s first NASCAR victory was a big deal.
On March 1, Caruth became the third Black driver to win a NASCAR national series race. He started the 200-mile Truck Series race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway from the pole and led 38 laps in an event that also featured Cup Series regulars Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch.
After Caruth celebrated his first career win on the front stretch with his parents, several of his competitors congratulated him as he drove down pit road to Victory Lane. Cup Series regular Ross Chastain came into Victory Lane to congratulate him, and Bubba Wallace - Caruth’s long-time mentor - video-called him after the race to congratulate him on his big win.
But as big of a night as it was for the 21-year-old Washington D.C. native, there was no wild party on the Las Vegas Strip for Caruth. He flew back home later that night, and almost immediately his focus turned to this Saturday’s race at Bristol.
“As a kid, you think about how that first one will feel,” Caruth said in an interview with Auto Racing Digest. “But I guess my focus is putting together a full season, honestly.
“It’s only March, and the Playoffs don’t start until August. It’s great to be locked in and be one of those 10 guys, but you still have a whole long season to go. I know some tracks are our strengths, like the mile-and-a-half tracks (such as Las Vegas), but we definitely have some of those places that I wasn’t as good at last year - and that’s where my focus lies. Obviously, you can’t win every week. But you've got to be competitive and make the most of your situation each race.
“That’s kind of where my focus is; on a week-by-week and race-by-race basis.”
Not coming from a racing family, Caruth first took an interest in racing when he saw the Disney/Pixar movie Cars as a child. He dressed up as Jimmie Johnson for Halloween in second grade and finally got to attend his first NASCAR race in person when he was 12 years old and his parents took him to the 2014 fall race at Richmond Raceway.
Like 2024 Daytona 500 winner William Byron, Caruth first began racing virtually on iRacing. His success on the simulator caught the attention of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, which allowed him to race a Legends car - his first time in a real race car- at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2019.
Caruth would continue to make his way up the NASCAR ladder in the following years, competing in late models, the ARCA Menards Series, and eventually the Truck Series and occasionally the Xfinity Series.
Away from the racetrack, Caruth’s other focus is his classes at Winston-Salem State University, where he is a senior pursuing a Motorsports Management degree. Juggling his college and racing commitments can make for a busy schedule with few moments to rest.
Perhaps fittingly, CELSIUS Energy Drink recently signed on to be a personal sponsor of Caruth.
“I’ve got a busy schedule,” Caruth said. “Early mornings, late nights and it’s important to get that little boost to get through the day."
He may have a busy schedule, but Caruth has already drawn praise from many drivers at NASCAR’s top level - including Wallace and Busch - the latter who was his teammate at Vegas and will be again this weekend at Bristol.
“It definitely means a lot because those are a lot of guys that I’ve looked up to in the last 5-10 years,” Caruth said of the Cup regulars. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of them through training with them, doing appearances with them, and competing against some of those guys. To have their respect and receive that praise means a lot.”
While Wallace’s mentorship of Caruth is well-known among NASCAR fans, some may not know about Busch’s mentorship of the rising star. While Busch can only be Caruth’s teammate for five races this season due to a rule that limits Cup Series drivers racing in NASCAR’s lower ranks, Caruth has already learned so much from him.
“It’s been really good to lean on Kyle just because he’s got over 200 wins (in NASCAR’s top three divisions),” Caruth said. “But even from our competition meetings and being around him and racing against him a little bit last year, he’s so good and he’s very smart.
“I’ve been able to pick up quite a few things over the last couple of weeks from being around him. To race against him at Bristol is going to be great. He’s got double-digit wins at that place (Busch has a whopping 22 victories at Bristol across NASCAR’s top three national series), so he’ll definitely be someone to look out for next week for sure.”
While some fans have criticized Cup drivers for competing in NASCAR’s lower divisions, Caruth absolutely loves it.
“Personally, it’s a lot of fun to race against the Cup guys,” Carruth said. “I think they should be able to do more than five races. They probably shouldn’t race in the Playoffs, but I’d prefer they’d be able to race something like 7-10 races.
“I think it makes us (Truck Series regulars) better (racing against Cup drivers). It helps the series, both Trucks and Xfinity, to have guys of that stature and caliber to compete with. It makes us truckers and Xfinity guys better because (the Cup drivers) are much more experienced. I think it’s really cool and it definitely feels great that it worked out in Las Vegas, but that won’t be the case every week. There’s a reason why they’re Cup drivers.”
Caruth will have another chance to compete against his teammate and mentor Kyle Busch this weekend as both drivers are entered in Saturday’s Weather Guard Truck race on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway (8 pm ET, FS1).