DC’s Rajah Caruth wins first career NASCAR race

WASHINGTON - When it comes to his D.C. childhood, Rajah Caruth seems to remember it all.

"It’s where I went to middle school, it’s where I went to high school. I’ve had, as a young man, you have a lot of important moments in your life, and almost all of them were in D.C.," Caruth told FOX 5.

There haven’t been too many notable NASCAR drivers who call large metropolitan cities home, but Rajah Caruth’s journey from a self-proclaimed "Capitol Hill Kid" was as unique as it was modern.

He says a love of racing started with the Disney and Pixar movie Cars, accelerated when he went to a race at Richmond Motor Speedway, and blossomed through iRacing: realistic racing simulators that Caruth always seemed to be rushing home to play so he could practice.

When Caruth spoke with FOX 5, many of his memories were in the context of where he was before he rushed home to practice: His high school, School Without Walls in Foggy Bottom, George Washington University’s campus, the H Street Corridor, trips home on D.C.’s Metro.

"I think about those days because I didn’t think this would, I have hopes and dreams, but realistically, especially in hard moments, you never think it can happen, so I’m just really taking it slow and trying to savor it for a second before we get back to work tomorrow," Caruth said.

Caruth has gone from racing simulators to NASCAR’s Victory Lane.  Friday night, Caruth won the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to notch his first career victory and become the third black NASCAR driver to win a national series race.

"It hasn’t sunk in to be honest. I think, all I can think about is the next race, but my times in school, my times as a younger kid, thinking about what this moment would feel like, um, if and when it would happen. So, I still feel kind of in disbelief," Caruth told FOX 5.

Caruth is 21 and still a senior at Winston Salem State University in North Carolina.  He mostly takes online classes and acknowledges at this very moment he’s "a little behind", and spends most of his time in the garage, or training for his next race.

Caruth was thankful for sponsors, staff, engineers, all the people who took a chance on him to help him get to where he is today.

Caruth is also appreciative of NASCAR’s Drive For Diversity program and says he thinks representation in NASCAR is really important.

"At the end of the day, it’s cool to see the representation changing, not just as drivers, but as pit crew members, engineers, art departments, legal departments, hopefully it’ll be, like that won’t be the tagline anymore, it’ll be more commonplace in the years to come," Caruth said.