Historic.
A word that carries so much meaning, a word which represents an important moment in time. And yes, a word which sums up Rajah Caruth’s victory in this past Friday’s Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Caruth, 21, joined Wendell Scott and Bubba Wallace as the only Black drivers to win a NASCAR national series race. Caruth, who got his start the unconventional way, in iRacing, accomplished the feat in just his 30th CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start.
Oh, and by the way, Caruth is still in college, a senior at Winston-Salem State University where he is pursuing a degree in motorsports management. That makes Caruth the first HBCU student to win a race in NASCAR.
Everything about Caruth’s triumph at Las Vegas is historic.
“As a kid, right, you always think about oh if I win and I get my first win, it’s gonna feel like this,” Caruth said Tuesday, via SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I thought I was gonna cry like a baby. And I took the white flag and I’m like, ‘Is this like real?’ Get onto the frontstretch — it just didn’t sink in, you know. I’m a pretty docile, lowkey kinda dude anyway, so I don’t know why, it just didn’t feel real. But it’s definitely feeling like business as usual because not having the ride situation sorted out till late in the offseason. I definitely feel like I’ve been written off with how things went last year, so it feels good to get going and hopefully we can put together some more.”
NASCAR community congratulates Rajah Caruth on victory at Las Vegas
Nobody’s writing him off anymore. They’re now taking notice of one of the bright young stars in NASCAR today. One veteran, in particular, sees a great future ahead for Caruth after his win at Las Vegas.
“Absolutely great accomplishment for sure,” Denny Hamlin said Monday. “It’s not like he’s been in the sport a ton, you know, a really long time either. And he won it, you know, he won it outright, right? He did it. And it wasn’t some kind of trick, you know, strategy or anything like that. … And he showed speed the entire race. You know, he was up front. I saw all that.
“So, um, congratulations to him and his team and Spire [Motorsports] for winning another race. It’s just — they’re definitely on a roll and it seems this could be a big momentum boost for Rajah and could propel him to who knows where, right? I think if he can continue to continue on this trajectory, uh, you know, winning a handful of races, he could be the next level, you know, the next level soon.”