“Not as good as we needed to be”: HMS backed Bubba Wallace prodigy looks back on his Las Vegas result

Bubba Wallace’s mentee and Spire Motorsports’ NASCAR Craftsman Truck series driver Rajah Caruth finished P7 at the Ecosave 200 held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 14, 2025. Caruth came out and reflected on his race as he spoke with the media afterwards.

Rajah Caruth drives the #71 Spire Chevrolet full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and is sponsored by Hendrickcars.com and backed by HMS. The 2025 season is Caruth’s third season as a full-timer in the truck series.

Bubba Wallace's prodigy moved from GMS Racing to Spire Motorsport in 2024 after driving for his current team as a part-timer in 2022. Caruth's only truck series win came last year at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. However, the 22-year-old wasn't able to convert his Top 10 starting position into a win this time around.

Caruth spoke with Frontstretch after the race at Las Vegas and revealed his frustration at not being able to finish higher than the back end of Top 10 as Bubba Wallace’s prodigy reflected on his race. He said,

“Yeah, I mean, we were just kind of the back part of the top 10 there and just weren't as good as we needed to be. Some of the changes we made to our truck from last year and then the different conditions, it just kind of was worst case scenario. And I don't feel like I did the best. Like I was too being too much of a teammate to start the race and it screwed me.”

“So I think I gotta kind of get that out of me just because I can't keep being on the bad end of it. But overall got two, like one penalty and one bad stop. So that kind of just made it worse for us having to come through everybody. But I'm glad it ran green there and we can kind of get to work.”

Rajah Caruth started the race in P6, and a bad stop and penalty later, he managed to finish inside the Top 10 in P7.

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Bubba Wallace's prodigy Rajah Caruth opens up on expectations from Ecosave 200 amid poor start to campaign

Rajah Caruth had a strong start to the 2024 Truck series campaign, finishing on the podium at Daytona, finishing P8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. However, Bubba Wallace's prodigy had a dreadful start to the 2025 campaign with retirements in the first two races.

Speaking with the media ahead of the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Caruth expected a strong result to claw back points in the championship as he said,

“For me success is essentially just doing kind of my job and doing the little things right and my preparation through the week executed on the machine on race day. So yeah, I think that's really it and hopefully tonight goes well for us. We haven't had the best start of the year but hopefully things go smoothly tonight and we have a good race.” (1:54 onwards)

Rajah Caruth became the third black driver to win a race in either of NASCAR's three national divisions after winning the 2024 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Wendell Scott and Bubba Wallace are the other two who won before him.