For the third time in just under two months, Rajah Caruth left a NASCAR O’Reilly Series race feeling as though Jesse Love had valid reasons to be frustrated with him.
This time at Dover, racing for the lead on Lap 100, Caruth bobbled under Love and they both ended up in the wall. It significantly damaged the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 and Love could only drive it to a 23rd place finish.
For his part, Caruth finished 13th.
“There is a lot I needed to do different there,” Caruth said. “I wasn’t the cleanest on my execution there. I took a race-winning car and finished outside the top 10 and damaged it.”
Caruth was also involved in a separate crash shortly afterwards when he bobbled under Harrison Burton. In this incident, Burton was struggling and backed-up to Caruth. At the same time, Sammy Smith got under Caruth and loosened him up to trigger the ordeal.
But the incident with Love comes off previous incidents at Martinsville and Rockingham. In that latter, Caruth personally apologized to Richard Childress Racing’s O’Reilly Series director Danny Lawrence.
Caruth felt like Love raced him tight, but the contact was still his responsibility.
“It was up to me to control the car,” he said. “We are all racing hard. It’s up to me to control the car and obviously sorry to those guys. I just didn’t think I’d get that loose into the corner. I should have had the hindsight in the moment to live for another corner. It was a really good car and I made my day way harder than it needed to be.
“I’ve said sorry a lot and I don’t know how to handle that. I’ve been in the wrong the last two times.
“And it hasn’t been anything on purpose, I’m just racing for my life out here. Nothing is guaranteed, I don’t know what my future holds. I feel like I need to make the most of the opportunities I have. I’ve crossed over and gotten too aggressive with it this year. I’m just trying to make the most of it.”
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