The infrared spectrum of the cyanomethyl radical (H2CCN) generated by the 193 nm excimer laser photolysis of chloroacetonitrile was observed by time-resolved diode laser spectroscopy. About 50 lines, involving those split into doublet due to the spin-rotation interaction, were assigned to rovibrational transitions in the nu(5) (CH2-wagging) band of cyanomethyl. The molecular constants in the nu(5) vibrational state were derived from the analysis of the observed wave numbers, resulting in the rotational constants, A=9.09503(21) cm(-1), (B+C)/2=0.335 363 4(41) cm(-1) and (B - C)=0.011 503 6(71) cm(-1), and the spin-rotation interaction constant epsilon(aa)=-2.143(47) x 10(-2) cm(-1), where the figures in parentheses are 2.5 standard deviations to be attached to the last digit, the constants in the ground state being fixed to the reported values from microwave spectroscopy. The band origin determined nu(o)=663.793 98(85) cm(-1) is consistent with the value derived from the photo-detachment spectroscopy of the H2CCN- anion. Large changes in the rotational constant A and the centrifugal distortion constant Delta(K) on vibrational excitation from the ground state to the nu(5) state are accounted for by the alpha-type Coriolis interaction of the nu(5) vibrational state with the nu(8) (CH2-rocking) and nu(9) (in-plane angle CCN-bending) vibrational states.