Although quite early in his career, Rajah Caruth is a star in the making. Not just on the track, but off the track as well. The 21-year-old resident of Atlanta made his Xfinity debut a couple of years ago, and fast forward to 2023, when he drove the #17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

After a consistent ARCA Menards series driving for Rev Racing, Rajah Caruth now looks forward to his second full season of trucks coming up next year. He has been displaying great skill in the iRacing, ARCA, Xfinity Series, and Truck Series and, hence, is optimistic about what lies ahead of him.

Rajah Caruth reflects on his year and sheds light on his plans for the next

When a rookie driver ushers into the arena of NASCAR, they usually start with the Craftsman Truck Series. It wasn’t any different for Rajah Caruth, as he too competed full-time for GMS Racing in 2023. However, towards the end of the season, he landed a ride in an Xfinity Series car, and that too for the winningest team in NASCAR.

Rajah Caruth made the final start of 2023 for Hendrick Motorsports in the #17 machine at Phoenix Raceway last Sunday with Greg Ives as his crew chief. And he couldn’t have been happier about it. As a product of the Drive for Diversity program, driving the HMS entry that has been driven by seasoned drivers like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, William Byron, and Alex Bowman is indeed an achievement on its own.

As reported by the official site of Hendrick Motorsports, Caruth said, “It’s pretty awesome to work with the 17 groups just because it is people I grew up watching on TV that were part of some of Jimmie (Johnson’s) championships and stuff like that.” Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports got the opportunity to interview Caruth in New York, and it was then that the young speedster revealed how special it was for him to have been able to land a ride with Hendrick Motorsports.

“Man, that thing (#17) was really fast. It took me a while in stage 1 and stage 2 figuring the thing out and when you get upwards to 15th straight up, like the guys are so much better,” said Caruth. “When I’d finished and ran 15 to 25th of the top mix stuff… other tracks like Darlington or Dover, that would be straight up. Racing Riley Herbst and Sammy and Austin Hill and Chandler, Josh Berry, those guys are all really good… I realized really quickly as I get up in the mix on restarts I’m having to really drive hard.”

Caruth looks forward to next year with high hopes. “I think I’ll be in a really good spot for next year. I think the situation I’ll be in; it’ll be the best stuff in Trucks I’ve been in ever. So it’ll be pretty awesome and Phoenix went pretty well for Hendrick,” he added.

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In no way do Rajah Caruth’s off-track activities lack the luster that his on-track achievements flaunt. The reason why he was in New York was for the screening of a documentary based on his Xfinity Series debut two years ago. However, this is not the first film appearance for Caruth.

Rajah Caruth: A story of struggle

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Caruth never imagined that he would be a part of NASCAR’s top-tier racing series as a full-timer. Growing up as a black kid in Washington, D.C., he had zero connections and no representation in the industry. Hence, young Caruth did what he could do: virtual racing. He quickly made a name for himself in iRacing, which later found its momentum in getting him a spot in the Drive for Diversity program, which in turn snowballed into what he is doing today.

This isn’t the first time Rajah Caruth will be seen as the subject of a film or a show. The 21-year-old was featured in the NASCAR documentary “Through the Fences.” He said, “It’s pretty cool that Jack Gordon produced, filmed, and edited (the film). He was a part of my day-to-day for that week up to my first race at Richmond with Alpha Prime last year, which is crazy.”

Reflecting on his latest documentary, “Outside Line,” Rajah Caruth said, “It’s been almost two years. The scene we created up there is pretty special, and thinking about how much we’ve done in the top sense”.

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