HMS backed Bubba Wallace’s mentee Rajah Caruth shortlisted for major NASCAR honor after first season

Rajah Caruth is the top seed for the 2025 Most Popular Driver Award in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Backed with a year-long sponsorship from HendrickCars.com, the 22-year-old native of Atlanta, Georgia, picked his career-first victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.

Caruth is currently NASCAR’s youngest Black driver. If he wins the prestigious award, it will be another career-first achievement.

Fans can vote for him by clicking on the link provided in the tweet below:

With his win at Las Vegas, Caruth joined the late Wendell Scott and Cup Series regular Bubba Wallace as the only Black drivers to win at NASCAR’s national level. Wallace, who has been a mentor of sorts to Caruth, was proud when the young speedster clinched the win that got him an automatic ticket to the 2024 playoffs.

“I’ve been hard on him since Day 1. I will never forget the first time watching him in a Legends car at Charlotte and I got in his face, ‘What are you so afraid of the wall for? You haven’t even hit’,” Wallace said in a statement (quoted by The Chicago Tribune).

“I feel proud to have played a small part in this. And I called him, and he was pumped. But, like, his burnout was lame and his phone call was lame. I was like, ’Come on man, I’m more pumped than you are!’”

Both Wallace and Caruth have previously been involved in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. However, Caruth had been honing his skills way before he got into NASCAR. He believes that mistakes are indeed the pillars of success.

“If you think you’re just going to wake up and be in front of you, it’s not. You just got to put in the work and listen,” Rajah Caruth explained. “Emphasis on ‘listen’ because I think about my first years racing on iRacing, learning how to be fast on there, making a lot of mistakes. Honestly, it was kind of the same when I started in real life.”

“I just listened to people that wanted to help me. I put in the work, late nights, early mornings, showing up. I caught some breaks, for sure. I tell those kids, because I know there’s a lot out there that are in similar spots than me, y’all can do it,” he added.

Caruth finished the season seventh in the driver standings with 2213 points to his credit.

Rajah Caruth reflects on “okay day” at Phoenix

Rajah Caruth qualified for the playoffs for the first time this year. Despite not making the Championship 4, the Spire Motorsports driver delivered a top-15 finish in the championship race.

“It was just an okay day in Phoenix,” Caruth said of his day through one of his recent posts on X. “We made it to the top 7 and pitted for fresh tires hoping to gain some spots, but the restarts didn’t quite go our way. Season’s officially over, but we’ll be back even stronger next year!”

This season alone, Caruth picked five top-5s and 12 top-10s. He also earned two pole positions at Las Vegas and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

There have been speculations about JR Motorsports signing Caruth to its Xfinity program in 2025. However, as per journalist Bob Pockrass, Caruth is expected to run another season in the Truck Series driving the No. 71 Chevy Silverado for Spire Motorsports. Meanwhile, JR Motorsport will be looking for sponsorships to back Carson Kvapil for a full-time ride behind the wheel of the No. 1 next year.