Hustling Into Homestead
Cody Ware Putting in the Work Ahead of Straight Talk Wireless 400
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 20, 2025) – Cody Ware is hustling into Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Straight Talk Wireless 400 Sunday at the 1.5-mile oval culminates a whirlwind week for the driver of the No. 51 Jacob Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing (RWR) and provides a glimpse into the life of a NASCAR Cup Series driver.
Ware touched down in Concord, North Carolina, shortly before 1 a.m. EDT on Monday after a six-hour flight back from Las Vegas, site of last Sunday’s race. He shook off the effects of jet lag and went about his routine of working out and downloading data from the race he had just run 14 hours earlier. Sleep beckoned even as the sky remained lit from the remnants of dusk, but the recommended eight hours of shuteye was cut short by a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call. Ware was on an early flight to Indianapolis on Tuesday to join his RWR counterpart in the NHRA Mission Food Drag Racing Series, Top Fuel driver Clay Millican, to speak with 500 Arby’s franchisees, and he needed to get to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
An all-day event stretched well into the evening, and after an even shorter sleep, Ware caught another early-morning flight out of Indianapolis on Wednesday and flew back to Charlotte. He drove straight from the airport to the RWR shop for his weekly team meeting, which was pushed back a day from its standard Tuesday slot to accommodate the trip to Indy.
The meeting was in-depth and covered not just the details from the prior race at Las Vegas, but the season to date. Homestead was a new opportunity, and everyone wanted to unlock its potential.
By 2 p.m., Ware was driving north on Interstate 85 to High Point, North Carolina, where he had an in-studio television interview with FOX Channel 8 reporter Chris Weaver. Around 3:15 p.m., Ware pulled into the lot. By 3:30 p.m., he was live on a recently launched show being streamed across Roku, Firestick and AppleTV on myFOX8+. Interaction with other personnel and a tour of the station followed. By 4:45 p.m., Ware was back on the road, returning home around 6 p.m.
Dinner, a decent night’s rest, and then another pre-dawn wakeup on Thursday followed, this time for a four-hour stint in the simulator at the Ford Performance Center in Concord, North Carolina. There, Ware and his crew chief, Billy Plourde, put into play much of what they had discussed in their team meeting the day before. With only 25 minutes of practice on Saturdays of race weekends followed by just a single qualifying lap, the simulator is an essential tool to finding a fast setup before the car even turns a wheel on the racetrack.
Ware hit the gym afterward, then got to enjoy an afternoon before packing up for his Friday flight to South Florida.
“Racing is all about what goes on Monday to Friday, even Friday to Saturday, and then Sunday is the fun part,” Ware said.
“I did get a chance to reset and reload toward the end of this week. It’s busy for a reason. We’ve got some work to do. It’s been a tough start to the year and we’ve got to start putting together some good results.”
Homestead is known as a driver’s track. It is a favorite among competitors, with its weathered asphalt, long straightaways and variable banking giving drivers options to search different racing lines while managing their tires.
“Homestead is super aggressive, super abrasive. It’s almost like Darlington times 10, where the track surface, after a lap or two, your tires are shot. Everyone’s got a terrible racecar 10 laps into a run. That’s why it’s a more driver-oriented track,” Ware said.
“It’s all about making the most of what you have. I think even the guy leading the race at Homestead is going to be complaining about how bad his car is, but he’s just the one who’s making the most of it.”
Ware will make the most of his track time at Homestead beginning at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday when practice begins for the Straight Talk Wireless 400. Qualifying is immediately afterward, and Ware will be the second of 37 drivers to turn a lap against clock and set his position for Sunday’s race. The 267-lap race goes green at 3 p.m. with live coverage on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“Once you strap into the racecar, all the other outside noise goes away,” Ware said. “You’ve got your spotter up top, you’re working with your crew chief, so it’s not a quiet place, but it’s my happy place, for sure. It’s where I feel the most comfortable and feel at home.”
About Rick Ware Racing:
Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age 6 when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver’s seat and into full-time team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with his wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that competes full-time in the elite NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track and FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX).
