RICK WARE RACING
Ambetter Health 400
Date: Feb. 23, 2025
Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 2 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia (1.54-mile oval)
Format: 260 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/100 laps/100 laps)
Note: Race extended six laps past its scheduled 260-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Josh Berry of Wood Brothers Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Ford)
RWR Race Finish:
● Cody Ware (Started 31st, Finished 35th / Accident, completed 183 of 266 laps)
● Corey LaJoie (Started 35th, Finished 38th / Accident, completed 149 of 266 laps)
RWR Points:
● Corey LaJoie (32nd with 21 points)
● Cody Ware (37th with four points)
Race Notes:
● Christopher Bell won the Ambetter Health 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Atlanta.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 62 laps.
● Twenty-four of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Ryan Blaney remains the championship leader after Atlanta with a 12-point advantage over second-place William Byron.
Sound Bites:
“I honestly have no idea (what happened). I know that the 99 (Daniel Suárez) was spinning out ahead of us. I felt like we slowed down. I’m not sure if we got hit from behind, but next thing I know, I’m in the outside wall. So just another frustrating weekend of superspeedway racing for the 51 Arby’s team. I felt like we should not have been racing like that at that part of the race, but it is what it is and that’s what this kind of style of racing breeds. So, just thankful to be getting away from superspeedway racing and onto a road course next week at COTA.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“Oh man, we were racing like hell. There’s nothing to get your heart rate up in a racecar more than this. I mean, you can talk about restarts at Dover, where it’s really hectic and stuff’s happening at lightning speed, but man, Atlanta, you have to be so precise and so instinctive with the moves you make. And we were making our way forward. I thought we got our car driving good after the first pit stop and we finally broke into that bubble, that top-20 bubble to where you can start really getting some fresh air, clean air on occasion, and then that is when you can really maneuver. We got there, and we also got there with a pretty decent strategy to then flip some guys and maybe even find ourselves on the edge of the top-10. But something about the 9 (Chase Elliott), I know everybody was kind of gummed up. I was just in line pushing, and next thing I know I went by him, and next thing I know, he caught me in the right rear.” – Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 01 AirMedCare Network Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 2 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
