RICK WARE RACING
Quaker State 400
Date: June 28, 2025
Event: Quaker State 400 (Round 18 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia (1.54-mile oval)
Format: 260 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/100 laps/100 laps)
Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Austin Cindric of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
RWR Finish:
● Cody Ware (Started 39th, Finished 13th / Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)
● Corey LaJoie (Started 25th, Finished 39th / Accident, completed 68 of 260 laps)
RWR Points:
● Cody Ware (36th with 133 points)
● Corey LaJoie (N/A… running a limited schedule in 2025 with EchoPark Speedway marking just his fourth start of season)
RWR Notes:
● Ware earned his first top-15 and fourth top-25 of the season. It was his first top-15 and third top-25 in 10 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at EchoPark Speedway.
● This was Ware’s best finish so far this season. His previous best was 24th, earned March 9 at Phoenix Raceway.
● Ware’s 13th-place result bettered his previous best finish at EchoPark Speedway – 23rd in July 2022.
Race Notes:
● Chase Elliott won the Quaker State 400 to score his 20th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his second at EchoPark Speedway. His margin over second-place Brad Keselowski was .168 of a second.
● There were 10 caution periods for a total of 68 laps.
● Only 21 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● William Byron remains the championship leader after EchoPark Speedway with a 42-point advantage over second-place Kyle Larson.
Sound Bites:
“For the season we’ve been having, 13th place is a really solid way to bounce back and have that just to build off of for Chicago and Sonoma. Just thankful to Jacob Companies for helping us put together a fast Ford Mustang Dark Horse tonight. We just want to build off this and I’m just thankful to the team that’s just never given up and continues to help us build these racecars, and we’ll keep getting after it. Our car was definitely good on the on the long side of a run, so I was a little worried to see how it would play out with a fresh set of tires, but I think we were able to maintain and scratch out a few more spots there at the end. I wish we could’ve gotten a little more racy, but when it got single file, it was a little bit harder to get those runs we were having early on. But, all in all, I mean, we can’t be upset with that race.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Jacob Construction Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“It’s hard to even say what we had. I feel like our Schluter Systems Ford Mustang was pretty good. We just were trying to get it tuned in for the conditions here tonight and we were just chipping away at a little bit of track position and got caught up in the ‘Big One.’ Really unfortunate, no more than we’ve been able to race this year. We’ve had strong runs and get caught up late, whether it was the Daytona 500 leading some laps. Atlanta, we had a strong car, then you know, turned around here. So, it’s just frustrating because these guys work so hard. I hate that we didn’t deliver Rick (Ware) 8and that 01 team a good run because those guys worked really hard on this car and it showed in qualifying. I don’t know, we’ll lick the wounds and get ‘em next time.” – Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 01 Schluter-Systems Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Grant Park 165 on Sunday, July 6 on the streets of downtown Chicago. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by TNT and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
