Rajah Caruth dismisses Bubba Wallace controversy from Daytona: 'It wasn't anything serious'

Last week, after causing a massive wreck at the end of the Fresh From Florida 250, Rajah Caruth had a moment with Bubba Wallace on pit road. The young NASCAR driver pled his case that he was pushed into the incident, but Wallace wanted to keep him honest.

With hindsight being 20/20 and seeing a few replays, Rajah Caruth seems to have come around on what happened. It wasn’t anything that he did maliciously, but he tried to get into a hole that just wasn’t there.

Today, ahead of Craftsman Truck Series qualifying at Atlanta, Caruth addressed the moment he had with Wallace. He went in for a handshake, and his Cup Series mentor wasn’t feeling very friendly at the time, looking to go over the wreck instead.

For Rajah, it’s no big deal. Bubba has been helping him for a few years now, and being held accountable is part of that.

“It wasn’t anything serious, just talking about what had just happened on the race track because I hadn’t seen the replay yet, but he’s been there for me since I first started,” Caruth told Jamie Little on the FS1 broadcast. “I’m excited to be here at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I was actually born here in Atlanta so it’s great to see a lot of friends and family here and hopefully, we have a good showing tomorrow for HendrickCars.com, everybody at Spire Motorsports, and Team Chevy.”

Caruth finished P3 at Daytona, but caused a big wreck. It’s good to see him come around and take responsibility. When he goes into the race at Atlanta, he will have learned a valuable lesson.

Rajah Caruth ready for a big 2024 season

For Rajah Caruth, 2024 could be a major year. He came up short a few times last season, mechanical issues plagued him at times with GMS Racing. However, Spire Motorsports is going to have their stuff right and ready for him to chase wins this year.

He almost did it at Daytona. Corey LaJoie just pushed him too far out from the draft and the rest of the field caught up to them. Then, on the green-white-checkered Caruth had a couple of slip ups.

To start the season with a top-5 is great. Caruth had to fight and claw his way to get into a top-5 position in 2023. Now, in 2024 he should be expected to run in the top-10 and better week in and week out.

With Bubba Wallace, a six-time race winner in trucks, mentoring him, Rajah Caruth is in good hands. He will learn a lot from the race track and from his allies off the track all season long.