The great news continues to pour in for NASCAR driver Rajah Caruth, who is finishing his senior year at Winston-Salem State University.
On Friday in Las Vegas he grabbed the top spot at the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 presented by Westgate Resorts. Caruth ran a qualifying lap of 30.501 seconds which was good enough to edge out Christian Eckes (30.502) by one thousandth of a second. He won’t have long to celebrate with the race rolling off the grid at 8pm EST. But it was still a special moment none the less.
“To be here and get my first pole here at Las Vegas is pretty special. Hopefully we can have a complete race tonight and be there at the end. I felt like I did my part coming to green, and did all the things in my control so hopefully we’ll have a good race tonight,” Caruth said afterward.
When the live reporter asked Caruth if he had a little tear in his eye, Caruth playfully blamed it on the wind. The run to the pole was a bookend to the sponsorship news that broke earlier this week.
HendrickCars.com announced that it would be the primary sponsor of Caruth’s No. 71 Chevrolet for the remainder of the season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Hendrick had previously agreed to sponsor the truck for just 10 of the 23 races this season.
On Friday night even though Caruth will start up front, the field will have a handful of Cup regulars who’ll be looked at as the ringers in the field. Last weekend’s winner in Atlanta, Kyle Busch, will be racing in the truck race along with Zane Smith and Christopher Bell.
The truck race will be televised on FS1 beginning at 8pm EST. After two races Rajah Caruth is fifth in the points standings, 25 points out of first place.