Caruth executes key green flag pit stop to get first win in Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 and lock into playoffs
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
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LAS VEGAS-It’s been a great week for Rajah Caruth. You can’t draw it up any better if you tried.
After getting the full season funded by HendrickCars.com on Wednesday, the 21-year-old was able to win from the pole in the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday night for his first career win. It also locks him into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs.
To get his first career win, he had to get his truck back in a position to contend. After starting on the pole, he quickly fell back to fourth in the early going. But once the final stage came, the truck returned to life and he could lead 38 laps over two spans.
“Yeah, man, it’s I’m just very speechless,” Caruth said of his first win in NASCAR. “You know, it’s been a tough journey so far and a lot of people have helped me get to this point.”
Caruth was hoping there would be no caution flags over the final few laps. This would’ve changed the race completely and likely meant a pit stop for the whole field.
“I was just thinking what I needed to do with like, a caution came out,” Caruth explained of the final laps. “Just trying to make it live to the end just with how my balance of my truck was all night. But just being prepared for anything. It’s easy to get really excited and stuff and miss your marks and just get caught up in the moment. I just tried to execute unfortunately, no yellow came out and it worked out for us.”
He also made a lot of history with this win. He is the third African American driver to win a NASCAR race joining Wendall Scott and his mentor Bubba Wallace.
On top of that, he is another winner of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program. With the victory, he moves into fourth in points just 10 points behind Tyler Ankrum who finished second on Friday.
However, he also got some major help from pit road penalties. After winning the first two stages, Ty Majeski sped on pit road during green flag pit stops, where he was caught speeding. Majeski led 5 times for 40 laps and looked to have the dominant truck of the night, especially after the sun went down.
Another thing Caruth had to go through was the three NASCAR Cup Series drivers in the field. The fastest of those was Christopher Bell who started 14th and was moving through the field like a hot knife going through butter. He also had a speeding penalty, which moved him back to 25th early on.
“I had the speed to lap the field, it felt like,” Bell explained. “But it didn’t happen.”
Another challenger of the night was Corey Heim. He led twice for 18 laps before bringing it home third.
“Yeah, I mean they (Caruth’s team) just did a solid job,” Heim said. “I mean, they executed. He kept himself in position all night and executed on the green flag cycle and that was kind of key. So a couple of things that we could’ve done a little bit better. But he did a great job. He earned it.”
Also having a wild night was hometown favorite Kyle Busch. Rowdy began the night in fourth and was in the top four all night before he was also the victim of a pit road penalty in the form of a safety violation. He finished the night a lap down in 15th, which was a shock for the favorite coming into the night. He also battled a tight race car most of the night. This was his second of five starts in the series this season.
The series will now have a few weeks off before they head to Bristol Motor Speedway on March 16th.
