Everyone Penalized as Rajah Caruth Makes History at Vegas

In A Nutshell

Rajah Caruth made history at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, becoming the third African-American to win a NASCAR premier series race.

Caruth won the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 on Friday night (March 1), earning his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory. He did so from the pole, of which he also earned his first.

Caruth passed Taylor Gray during the final pit stop cycle halfway through the final stage, and held off a hard-charging Tyler Ankrum to take his first win in his third race with Spire Motorsports.

Ankrum finished second, continuing his great start to the season. He was followed by Corey Heim, who came from a 25th-place starting position to earn his third straight top three finish. Gray finished fourth, sandwiched between TRICON Garage teammates Heim and Christopher Bell, who finished fifth.

The Top Truckers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Winner, Polesitter: Rajah Caruth
Stage One and Two Winner, Most Laps Led (40 of 134): Ty Majeski
Rookie of the Race: Conner Jones

Top Storylines of the Race

• The race only saw two cautions for cause. One came on lap 3 when Bayley Currey spun and hit the wall in an attempt to pass Chase Purdy. Meanwhile on lap 68, immediately after the restart to begin the final stage, Dean Thompson got loose and smacked the outside wall off of turn 4. Currey finished 28th, five laps down, while Thompson finished 30th, nine laps down.
• With the race relatively clean (for the Truck Series, that’s an absolute win), only one truck failed to finish the race – Timmy Hill‘s self-owned No. 56 went behind the wall after 75 laps with a hub failure in the left front tire.
• Caruth joins Bubba Wallace and Wendell Scott as the only African-American drivers to win a race in NASCAR history. However, Caruth and Wallace are the only African-American drivers to win a race in the Truck Series.
• Caruth’s win also extends Chevrolet’s winning streak across NASCAR’s premier series, as it still hasn’t lost a race in 2024, and has won nine of the last 10 races dating back to Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway (Cole Custer won the Xfinity Series race and championship in a Ford, the only non-Chevy victory).
• Additionally, Spire has not lost a truck race in 2024. Its satellite team, Rev Racing, won the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway at Daytona with Nick Sanchez, while Kyle Busch brought home Spire’s first win of 2024 at Atlanta Motor Speedway before…