Rajah Caruth became just the third Black driver to win a NASCAR national series race when drove to victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 1.
The 21-year-old Winston-Salem State University senior and NASCAR Drive for Diversity Program graduate also earned pole position (best starting position on the race track) for the first time in his career during the qualifying session ahead of the race.
“I’m pretty speechless. It’s been a tough journey so far,” Caruth told NASCAR.com.
“A lot of people have helped me get to this point. Thank you to every single one of y’all. Definitely ups and downs, but this journey has been fruitful at times and testing at times…This winter was a lot of uncertainty about where I’d be driving, not having a bunch of funding behind me at the time. I just stayed true to my faith and my family. Fortunately, a lot of people put a lot of stuff together for me to be in this spot,” Caruth continued.
As CBS Sports reports, Caruth is one of “most promising talents” to emerge from NASCAR’s diversity program in recent years.
With his win, Caruth joins Wendell Scott, who became the first Black driver to win a NASCAR national series race in 1963, and Bubba Wallace, who in 2021 became the second Black driver to achieve this feat in the 76-year history of the motorsport.
After the big race, Caruth thanked his parents for supporting his love for the sport. “I’m really glad both my parents are here, especially my dad. I know my sister’s watching, too. They’ve been my rock. My dad took me to my first race. Both my parents did, with my late granddad got me that first experience. Really enabled me to put in the work and chase the dreams,” Caruth said.
“This is the beginning of a bright future, I think,” he added. “It’s been kind of a struggle to get here, but that’s the nature of the game. We just took full advantage of the opportunities that we had, knowing that he had to potentially do what he did tonight.”