MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 23, 2025) – Racecar drivers collect numerous mementos during the course of their respective careers, from helmets and firesuits to chunks of asphalt and steering wheels. But of all the knickknacks drivers pick up as they rise through the ranks, ones from the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway are perhaps the most coveted.
Indianapolis has been hosting automobile races since 1909, and not just any race, but the Indianapolis 500. And because of its archaic – at least in racing terms – lineage, parts of Indy’s surface, namely the frontstretch, remained clad in bricks until 1961 when asphalt was spread across all but a three-foot strip at the track’s start/finish line. Hence, it’s nickname – the Brickyard – and why so many drivers’ bric-a-brac collections contain an old brick from the Wabash Clay Company, the Veedersburg, Indiana, based company that supplied nearly all those “Culver Blocks” on which legends tread.
As years pass, those bricks become harder and harder to come by, which is appropriate considering that each passing year raises the level of competition in all forms of auto racing, which makes finding success at the Brickyard equally elusive.
Cody Ware has tackled this challenge head on, both in a NASCAR Cup Series stock car and in an Indy car. In fact, Ware’s first taste of Indianapolis came via an Indy car when he drove in the 2021 Indianapolis Grand Prix on the track’s 2.439-mile road course. It was part of a double-duty August weekend for Ware, who also drove in the inaugural Cup Series race on the Indy road course.
When Ware returned to Indianapolis in 2022, he did so solely as a Cup Series driver, finishing 24th in the second iteration of the Verizon 200. When NASCAR returned to the iconic 2.5-mile rectangular oval in 2024, it served as Ware’s first Brickyard 400, and he delivered a solid 18th-place finish.
“To race on the big track for the first time was quite the experience,” said Ware, driver of the No. 51 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing. “Coming out of turn four, looking down the track, seeing Gasoline Alley to the left, and rows of grandstands on both sides, you realize real quick how tight the place is. But I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t feel as hectic as it all looked. I felt like the track raced really well.”
In addition to racing well, the aura carried by Indianapolis is appreciated by Ware.
“Indy is one of the most historically significant racetracks in America, if not the most historically significant track,” Ware said. “It’s got more than 100 years of history, and the races that have been run, with the personalities who have competed there and won there, it’s so incredibly competitive.
“Every time you drive into the track and you see that Pagoda, you immediately get hit with the track’s aura, its atmosphere, and what it really means to be racing there. It’s one of those things where, no matter how the race weekend goes, it serves as a reminder to just take in the experience and appreciate the opportunity you have to be racing there at the highest level of stock car racing. It’s always an honor to race at Indy.”
And for someone who has experience on both the road course and the oval, who has seen the track from inside an Indy car and a stock car, Ware believes the oval is where NASCAR belongs.
“The stock cars race much better on the oval at Indy than they do on the road course,” Ware said. “It was a welcome change to be on the oval and have the Brickyard 400 back. And our team had a good result, which gives me confidence going into this year’s race.”
Ware and his Cup Series counterparts take to the track for the first time on Friday for a 50-minute practice beginning at 1:05 p.m. EDT. They will have an evening to pour through data before qualifying on Saturday, which starts at 2:35 p.m. TruTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide live coverage of both. The Brickyard 400 goes live on Sunday at 2 p.m. with flag-to-flag coverage delivered by TNT and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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, FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) and zMAX CARS Tour.
