- Rajah Caruth will be behind the wheel of the No. 71 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado for Saturday’s XPEL 225 at Circuit of the Americas.
- Caruth secured his fourth consecutive top-10 finish of the season in last Saturday’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After starting sixth, the Washington D.C. native turned in a workman’s effort and brought his HendrickCars.com Chevy Silverado home eighth.
- HendrickCars.com will serve as Caruth’s primary sponsor for the entire calendar of 2024 NCTS races.
- HendrickCars.com is the online home for everything Hendrick Automotive Group.Visitors can shop thousands of new or pre-owned vehicles, locate centers for service and collision repair, receive a value to sell or trade their car, chat online with customer service, discover career opportunities, learn more about vehicle protections programs, and explore how the company gives back to the community.
- Caruth earned his first career NCTS pole position and win two races ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he led 38 of 134 laps and secured the win by 0.851 seconds. After 31 NCTS starts, he became the third African American driver, alongside NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott and current NASCAR Cup Series regular Bubba Wallace, to win a NASCAR National Touring Series race.
- Caruth is currently third in the NCTS driver standings. After four races, The Winston-Salem (N.C.) State University senior has logged one pole, one win, two top-five and four top-10 finishes. He’s recorded a 9.8 average start, a 5.0 average finish and completed all 620 laps contested this season.
- The 21-year-old racer has one previous NCTS start at the 3.14-mile, 20-turn Austin, Texas circuit. Last season, in his lone COTA start, Caruth rolled off the starting grid 20th and came away with a solid 13th-place showing.
You had to overcome some challenges last weekend but still managed to secure your fourth straight top 10 of the season. How do you get past those in-race circumstances to keep your head in the game?
“For me it’s not super hard getting over that stuff just because I think it’s important to compartmentalize when things like that happen and then realize you can’t change it. I’ve learned to focus on the task at hand and assess where you’re at. Basically, just trying our best to keep up our pace to stay on the lead lap. Thankfully with our group of over the wall guys, (crew chief) Chad (Walter), all of our mechanics and Joe (Campbell) spotting, we were effective in bouncing back, so I feel good about that.”
This weekend marks the first road course race of the season. You’ve only raced COTA once before. How have you prepared for this weekend?
“This is probably the race I put the most emphasis on so far this season, just because I know it’s not one of my strong suits. Although I didn’t finish terribly there last year (13th), I think everybody continues to improve, so I’m just trying to improve, also. I’m making sure I do my due diligence and be as prepared as possible through working with Josh Wise and the GM program. I keep working on my own iRacing practice and go karting, just because I know I’m essentially behind with my rotation skills compared to everybody else.”
Shifting gears from the ovals you’ve raced on so far this season, what excites you most about tackling a technical track like COTA?
“It’s exciting to go to a technical road course because there’s so many different corners that flow into each other. It’s hard and it shows the people who put in the work and time. I think I’m one of those people. Hopefully, we can get another good finish and continue our strong season.”
Spire Motorsports PR
