Bubba Wallace using friend Rajah Caruth’s win in Truck Series as motivation for the Las Vegas NASCAR race

23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace has reflected on his Truck Series friend Rajah Caruth's maiden triumph as he extracts motivation for his upcoming Cup Series race.

Caruth clinched his first-ever NASCAR Truck Series victory at the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200. After leading 38 out of 134 laps and snatching the lead from Tyler Ankrum on lap 114, the Spire Motorsports driver sealed his maiden Truck Series win on Saturday, March 2.

With his Las Vegas Motor Speedway feat, Caruth became the third African-American driver after Wendell Scott and Bubba Wallace to clinch a NASCAR victory.

However, the odds of reaching the pinnacle spot were slashed when a bad pit stop and a reduction in pace worth five seconds plummeted Caruth's position. Nevertheless, he regained momentum on the Final Stage and maintained the lead until he got to do his maiden victory burnouts.

The third NASCAR Cup Series race is scheduled to flag off on Sunday, March 3 at 3.30 PM ET, and the lineup is decided. Bubba Wallace will start his LVMS run from P5, and ahead of his Sunday stint, he has imbibed motivation from his 21-year-old mentee's win.

During the post-qualifying interview, Wallace told Fox reporter Jamie Little about bringing motivation from Caruth's win to his Cup Series run on the 1.5-mile oval.

Jamie posted Bubba Wallace's mindset ahead of the race on her X (formerly Twitter) account:

“I’m going to use the motivation from last night, ol' Rajah getting the job done, that was awesome. Got me excited to get in the car and try to one-up him, I don’t know how I’m going to do that. So proud of him."

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Bubba Wallace congratulates Rajah Caruth on his maiden NASCAR triumph

It's no mystery in the community that friends Bubba Wallace and Rajah Caruth also share a mentor-mentee relationship. The 23XI Racing star and the budding driver are usually seen conversing and exchanging ideas on the pit roads.

Wallace also expressed his views to reporter Bryan Nolen on Rajah's win and being a mentor to him.

Wallace said (via Frontstretch):

"I Facetimed him last night. What a cool moment to see. Super proud of him and everything that he has been able to accomplish, you know, everything he is able to do to get to this point. I can only imagine, you know, that’s 10 years ago or hell, 11 years ago for me getting my first one. And just that feeling, you know, and seeing him go through it all and being emotional with his family."

Wallace added:

"I’ve been hard on him since day one. Super cool to see him win…proud to play a small part in it."