Rajah Caruth has had a very promising start in his racing career.
The Winston-Salem State student has already secured a full-time ride for the 2024 season. He will return to the Craftsman Truck Series, joining Spire Motorsports, and will drive their No. 71 Chevy Silverado.
Jeff Dickerson, Spire Motorsports’ co-owner, was also impressed with the young driver.
“Rajah Caruth is an exceptional young man. He’s a very talented driver with a bright future. He’s young in his career, but he’s mature beyond his years.”
Carruth joined NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity, an academy-style training program designed to train emerging, talented drivers from diverse backgrounds and provide them with coaching, mentoring, and development.
Speaking to WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, Caruth shed some light on what sparked his interest in racing.
“From the Cars movies, I’ve seen them when I was younger, to collecting diecast toys, really as I grew older and then going to my first race when I turned 12, playing video games on Playstation, and then getting my start in racing when I was 16 years old,” Carruth said.
In 2020, when he was just 18 years old, Caruth recorded ten top 10 finishes, three top finishes, and a win in 19 starts in NASCAR’s Late Model series.
In 2021, Carruth won three Late Model races and ran a part-time schedule in the ARCA Menards Series. That same year, Caruth also was honored with the Wendell Scott Trailblazer Award. Named after the first Black man to race full-time and win a race in NASCAR’s premier series, the award honors a young minority driver in the sports’ Advance Auto Parts Weekly series who is overcoming obstacles in the forging of their path as they climb the sport’s ranks.
Caruth previously ran the full ARCA Menards Series East Schedule, where he tallied two top 5 finishes and five top 10 placings. His best finish was when he came in third at Southern National Motorsports Park. Caruth also saw seat time in five ARCA Menards Series national races, earning a top 5 and four top 10 placements, with his best effort being a third-place finish at Salem Speedway.
He competed in the ARCA Menard Series in 2022 again, finishing third in the season points standings. He also qualified for seven races in the Xfinity Series, NASCAR’s second-highest division, with a best finish of 12th at Martinsville Speedway. He also made four starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series, with his top finish being 11th at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Last season, Caruth joined GMS racing and ran a full-time schedule in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series. Piloting their No. 24 truck, Caruth achieved four top-10 finishes and was 16th in the season’s points standings. He also ran part-time in the Xfinity Series, his best finishes being 16th at Darlington and 12th at Martinsville.
Caruth debuted with Hendrick Motorsports, one of the sport’s most successful and prominent teams, in the Xfinity season finale, coming home 14th at the Phoenix Raceway.
The 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will take its first green flag of the season on Friday in the Fresh From Florida 250 at the Daytona International Speedway.
