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MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA – MARCH 28: Rajah Caruth, driver of the #88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, waits on the grid prior to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series NFPA 250 at Martinsville Speedway on March 28, 2026 in Martinsville, Virginia. (Photo by David Jensen\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Rajah Caruth took responsibility after making contact with Jesse Love<\/a> during the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series<\/a> race on April 4, 2026, at Rockingham Speedway. The incident at NASCAR Rockingham Speedway occurred early in the race. Caruth, driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, attempted to move behind Love\u2019s No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.<\/p>\n He misjudged the space and made contact with the left rear of Love\u2019s car. The impact sent Love into the outside wall and caused damage that affected his race. After the event at NASCAR Rockingham Speedway, Caruth spoke<\/a> with Love\u2019s team and addressed the incident.<\/p>\n Early incident at NASCAR Rockingham Speedway impacts the race<\/p>\n The contact at NASCAR Rockingham Speedway occurred early in the race as both drivers battled for position. Caruth tried to cross behind Love but clipped the rear of the No. 2 car.<\/p>\n The contact turned Love into the wall. His car suffered damage on the right side, which affected handling for the rest of the race.<\/p>\n Love reacted on the team radio immediately after the hit.<\/p>\n \u201cKILLED!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n His crew worked to manage the damage. Crew chief Danny Lawrence explained what they found after the incident.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he got in the wall there, when he and the 88 got in the wall there, there was a bunch of stuff bent on the right front end, on the right rear. And it broke the nuts that hold the wheel spacers on. So the wheels kept coming loose, and you can see on the back of the wheels where all that stuff was backing out.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the team had to continue checking the issue during the race.<\/p>\n \u201cSo he came in, and we hammered, hammered on the lug nuts. And even when we didn\u2019t need to stop that last time we came in, just to make sure. But that\u2019s what was happening, the right-side wheels were coming loose.\u201d<\/p>\n Caruth Takes Responsibility after the NASCAR Rockingham Speedway Race<\/p>\n After the race at NASCAR Rockingham Speedway, Caruth went to the Richard Childress Racing hauler to speak with Love and his team before addressing the media.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some things I needed to do better there. Like, I apologize to the two cars there. He came up there, and I was trying to cross him and hooked him into the fence. So, obviously, that was my fault there,\u201d Caruth said<\/a>.<\/p>\n He explained that the contact was not intentional.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, oh, other thing\u2026 Obviously, I got into the 2 earlier, and I was just trying to cross behind him. Obviously, I didn\u2019t mean to do that, and obviously, I\u2019ll go over there once we finish up over here. Obviously wanted to do that better, but glad to have a somewhat quiet day at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n Caruth completed the race and finished fourth, marking his best result in the series. Love also finished the race but continued to deal with ongoing handling problems caused by the damage.<\/p>\n The Incident Follows an Earlier Contact Between Drivers<\/p>\n The moment at NASCAR Rockingham Speedway followed an earlier incident between the two drivers at Martinsville Speedway<\/a>. That race included a heated exchange between Caruth and Love.<\/p>\n The latest contact added another moment between the two drivers early in the season. Both continue to compete in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series as the schedule moves forward.<\/p>\n Caruth\u2019s comments after the race focused on taking responsibility and addressing the mistake following the incident.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDogli Wilberforce<\/a> is a writer covering NASCAR, Formula 1, and the IndyCar Series for Heavy Sports. He has also written for Sportsnaut, FanSided, Total Apex Sports, and Last Word on Sports. Wilberforce focuses on the NASCAR Cup Series, breaking down news, driver stories, and key moments with a clear, fast, and engaging style. His work connects headlines to context, helping readers understand what matters most in the sport. More about Dogli Wilberforce<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA – MARCH 28: Rajah Caruth, driver of the #88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, waits on the grid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-583897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}