From iRacer to Truck Series Star: Everything You Need To Know About Rajah Caruth

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 03: Rajah Caruth, driver of the #24 Wendell Scott Foundation Chevrolet, enters his truck during practice for the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 03, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
The Daily Downforce gives you the downlow of 2023 fan favorite trucker, Rajah Caruth

With the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series 2023 season now in full-swing, we at the Daily Downforce thought it’d be fun to introduce one of the most impressive youngsters in the third-tier series. Obviously, he currently drives the No. 24 Chevy Silverado for GMS Racing but how much do you really know about Rajah Caruth? Well, buckle up and prepare for this deep dive in 2023’s fan favorite trucker.

First, though, here is a little fun fact about the GMS driver…he tells jokes.

A Fan First and Then An iRacing Guru

Like any future driver who wants to break into the NASCAR scene, Rajah Caruth was a fan first. The first race he ever attended was in Richmond, Virginia for one of the two stops there on the NASCAR Xfinity (then Nationwide) Series schedule.

He was 12-years old. After being a fan for many years, it wasn’t until experiencing his first race live and in person when he really caught the bug and new that driving stock cars was what he wanted to do with his life.

In a NASCAR.com interview with Tadd Haislop, Rajah had the following to say about his NASCAR upbringing and how he fell in love with the sport.

“I was a die-hard (NASCAR fan) before then, but I think that race, seeing everything, it emphasized it. As a kid, you don’t think about having to have a job. Sometimes you know what you want to do, but you don’t understand you’ve got to work. From day forward, it was like, ‘OK, this is what I want my life’s work to be.’ I still obviously wanted to be a race-car driver. But that day, it was like, ‘OK, this is my purpose.’”

Only four years after attending his first NASCAR race, Caruth competed professionally for the first time via the eNASCAR Ignite Series. He juggled practice three times a week as well as his first summer job. He got better and better and, by season’s end, he was 20th in the final eNASCAR point standings. In an interview with Tadd Haislop, Caruth had the following to say about his formative years as a racer.

“That summer, I had gotten on iRacing on June 11, on my 16th birthday. The Ignite Series started on the 18th. And those first two weeks I wasn’t that good, but I spent more and more time on it and got better and better. And actually, during that summer, I not only had my second-ever summer job, but I also had track practice three times a week. Work every day, track three times a week. When I wasn’t doing those things, I was on my rig. I say rig, but it was literally a wheel on the desk with my laptop.”

Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Caruth, being a part of NASCAR’s Drive For Diversity Program, signed with Rev Racing in 2019. He was a somewhat of an oddity heading into the 2019 season as he was a driver who had experience almost exclusively through iRacing. He made his first start in a real racecar that very season, competing in the Bojangles Summer Shootout Legend’s Cars race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. There, he would go onto finish an impressive 13th place.

In 2022 prior to the first race held at the newly reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway, Rajah put his iRacing abilities on full display, driving a No. 6 NASCAR on FOX car around the virtual track. Here, the network caught up with Rajah as he took us all on this racing experience.

Climbing The Ladder: Late Models and ARCA

Heading into the 2020 motorsports season, Caruth started his climb up the NASCAR ranks by making a handful of late model starts. He raced primarily in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. He make 19 starts that season and capture his first win at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway.

In the following year of 2021, Caruth would return to the weekly series and score three more victories, two at the legendary Hickory Speedway of Hickory, North Carolina and his fourth one coming at Tri-County Motor Speedway.

When he wasn’t running late models, however, he was running full-time for Rev Racing in the ARCA Menards East Series division. While he would not capture a win in the 2021 season, he did end the season with 2-top 5 finishes and 3-top 10s.

He would go on to run a handful more East Series races, a few West Series races, and make his debut in the main ARCA Menards Series in 2022. He would run full-time for Rev Racing and while he did not capture any wins that season, he would finish a career high 2nd at Kansas to teammate Nick Sanchez.

He goes through his weekend experiences here on his YouTube channel as he scores his career-best ARCA finish.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series And Beyond

In December of 2020, it was reported that Rajah Caruth, who has been a driver at Rev Racing since 2019, would be leaving, heading over to Chevy Truck Series juggernaut, GMS Racing. Caruth was said to be driving the No. 24 truck.

Shortly after the announcement and as sponsorships started falling into place, it was announced that the Wendel Scott would sponsor the truck series up-and-comer intermittently throughout the 2023 truck season.

Rajah Caruth’s 2023 Truck Series season hasn’t started off ideal, however, as he went for two-straight 29th-place finishes at Daytona and Las Vegas respectively. At Daytona, he was caught up in a big one on Lap 58.

Though the start to the 2023 has been a little rocky, Caruth is still holding his head high. It’s a learning curve and he’s ready to tackle it, for all the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Speaking with I AM ATHLETE, Rajah Caruth stated that seeing Bubba Wallace’s success and the way he has overcome adversity gave him the confidence he needed, as a person of color, to forge on through the sport.

With his online vlogs and interactions with popular YouTubers and podcasters, Rajah Caruth has certainly gained a significant following online. The fans are loving him and we at the Daily Downforce are too as he’s living the dream anyone whom has ever fired up a console NASCAR game or logged into iRaceing could ever imagine: He’s a racer.

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Cup: Tyler Reddick Starts 2026 With Two Straight Wins

What’s Happening?

The checkered flag has flown in the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Season. And, at the end of the day, it was Tyler Reddick who went back-to-back to win at EchoPark Speedway. Tonight, Reddick became the sixth NASCAR Cup Series driver to win the first two races of the season. He is the first since NASCAR Hall of Famer Matt Kenseth did it to kick off the 2009 season.

But, of course, Reddick wasn’t the only one to have a great start to the season. Several drivers leave Atlanta with a great points day, including Carson Hocevar, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, and Ryan Blaney. Here are the highlights of tonight’s race:

  • It was a chilly day down in Hampton, Georgia for the NASCAR Cup Series event at EchoPark Speedway (formerly the Atlanta Motor Speedway). There was a big fat question mark around this event as qualifying was rained out on Saturday morning. This meant that the metric determined the field and it was largely based upon the Daytona 500 finishing order. Daytona 500 champ Tyler Reddick started on the pole with his teammates Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst starting not far behind.
  • Stage 1 was relatively tame. There was a lot of juking for positions, but the best of the best in the NASCAR Cup Series were largely able to keep their noses clean. Austin Cindric won stage 1, with Bubba Wallace taking stage two. The top two stage earners for today’s race were Bubba Wallace (19) and William Byron (16).
  • A number of contenders were involved in massive crashes littered throughout the day. Among drivers caught up in incidents are Josh Berry, Shane van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch, Cole Custer, Austin Dillon, Austin Cindric, Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland, and Kyle Larson, among others. When it comes to superspeedway-style racing, big crashes are inevitable.
  • In the last 10 laps of the race, it was still anybody’s game. Bubba Wallace led with a hornet’s nest of Bell, Hocevar, Chastain, Reddick, and Suarez behind him. With 4 laps to go, Byron had a tire go down, causing a huge late-race caution. The race would finish in overtime.
  • The overtime finish was thrilling. After one false start, Bubba Wallace lined up on the inside with his teammate, Tyler Reddick. Behind them was Chase Briscoe. In the high lane, we had the wrecking ball duo of Carson Hocevar and Ross Chastain with Daniel Suarez behind them. As Reddick gave Bubba a great shot, the No. 23 jumped up to block Hocevar. Unfortunately, he jumped up too car and allowed Hocevar to get down below him. Then, the tandem of Reddick and Briscoe powered back on the inside and Tyler Reddick cruised to victory with no right front fender.

Key Incidents

Berry & Gibbs Tangle

From an awful showing in the 2025 Playoffs to yet another last-place finish, Josh Berry’s 2026 season is off to a rough start. Today, he got together with Ty Gibbs after Gibbs had an awful start to the year last year. The No. 54 was able to turn it around later in the season, though. But, for their 2026 outing, there’s a lot left to be desired. Check it out.

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Kyle Busch Goes Around

Kyle Busch’s 2025 season was abysmal. But, after he put his No. 8 RCR Chevy on the pole for the 2026 Daytona 500, things seemed to be looking up. He smartly survived last week by lying back on the last lap and safely navigating through the crash, finishing 15th. And he was a contender early in this race. However, late, Kyle Busch continued his dismal legacy at RCR by spinning after contact with Noah Gragson. His day ended prematurely. Check it out:

Also Read:

Hamlin/Logano Trigger Big One

We got our first big crash of the race at Lap 224 when both Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano got loose in front of the field. You can read all about that incident with the link below:

Also Read:

Caution Recap
  • Lap 60: Stage 1 Break
  • Lap 81: Josh Berry and Ty Gibbs
  • Lap 103: Riley Herbst
  • Lap 126: Kyle Busch
  • Lap 161: Stage 2 Break
  • Lap 200: Shane van Gisbergen
  • Lap 224: Hamlin, Logano Gets Loose, Triggers Big One
  • Lap 239: Logano Spins
  • Lap 257: Byron Spins
  • Lap 267: Logano Spins

Unofficial Race Results

Race to the Chase Points (2 of 26)

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Cup: Logano/Hamlin Get Together, Trigger Big One at EchoPark

What’s Happening?

Things started to get real for the NASCAR Cup Series drivers as we got inside 40 laps to go. We got our first Big One of the afternoon at Lap 224. It was triggered as the field came out of Turn 4 and entered the dogleg. Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, both whose cars were upset by the dirty air, got together. Logano was able to scoot on virtually unscathed. However, Hamlin turned in front of the pack, collecting several stars and heavy hitters. Here’s what happened:

  • Taking a look at it, it looks like Joey Logano got loose and let out of the throttle. Initially, it looks like he saved it. However, he was still barely hanging on. He got loose again and once again let off. Hamlin had nowhere to go.
  • Hamlin, reacting to Logano, overcorrected and ricocheted off the outside SAFER Barrier. This bounced him down into traffic, where he collected the likes of Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, A. J. Allmendinger, Connor Zilisch, and several others.
  • It has been a bad offseason for Denny Hamlin. He lost the 2025 championship in devastating fashion, he was in the thick of a lawsuit against NASCAR with Michael Jordan, he tragically lost his father in a house fire in December, and now he has two DNF finishes to start his 2026 campaign. After starting the season with three wild card races, one could only imagine that Hamlin is excited to get back to “normal racing” in a couple weeks when NASCAR heads to Phoenix.

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Cup: Mid-Race Report from EchoPark Speedway

What’s Happening?

Two stages down at EchoPark Speedway! Austin Cindric won stage one while Bubba Wallace took Stage 2. Here’s what you need to know heading into the final stage.

  • There were a lot of comers and goers early on in the earlier stages of the race. Joey Logano led several laps early, leading Josh Berry, who led 50 laps last year in this race before and incident with 10 laps to go took him out of contention. Beyond them, the usual suspects were up front. Daytona 500 Champion, Tyler Reddick red the first handful of laps and the Hendrick trio of Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and William Byron looked pretty sporty early on.
  • Austin Cindric went on to win the opening stage of the race, leading 4 laps to take the green and white checkered flag. With this win, Cindric earned 10 points to pad him during the Race for the NASCAR Chase. Also earning stage points were Wallace (9), Larson (8), Byron (7), Elliott (6), Reddick (5), Busch (4), Logano (3), Zilisch (2), and Blaney (1). During the stage break, a couple of contenders had issues on pit road. Chase Elliott overshot his pit box and leader, Austin Cindric also had a slow stop.
  • The first caution for the incident came on Lap 81. Christopher Bell got a huge run on the inside down the backstretch and decided to force the issue. Heading into Turn 3, he was pushing 4 wide. Josh Berry let off and clipped the bumper of Ty Gibbs. Both plowed into the wall, their days over. Also getting a piece of that action were Denny Hamlin and Riley Herbst. Their damage was negligible.
  • The second caution for cause came at Lap 103 and it was a similar deal. In this situation, Riley Herbst lost the front end of his No. 35 Monster Energy Toyota. He tagged Austin Dillon from behind, and the two went around, receiving significant damage. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was also caught up in the mess.
  • Kyle Busch’s 2025 woes followed him into 2026. After a solid first stage, Kyle Busch pulled up in front of Noah Gragson and got tagged from behind. He slid down the track and plowed into the inside wall. His day is over.
  • After a series of cautions sprinkled throughout the second stage, we ended Stage 2 on a major incident as well. As William Byron and Bubba Wallace drag raced to the line for the stage win, defending champion Kyle Larson threw a late block on Shane van Gisbergen, who had a headful of steam. This took both drivers out, sending them spinning in the infield. Bubba prevailed to win the stage (+10 points).
  • Also earning points in the stage are Byron (9), Briscoe (8), Reddick (7), Elliott (6), Hocevar (5), Preece (4), Blaney (3), Keselowski (2), Chastain (1).

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