Knievel Soared Over Buses; Cody Ware Wants to Soar Around the Bus Stop
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 4, 2025) – Evel Knievel created an incredible highlight reel of jumping buses on his motorcycle. His mesmerizing leaps made for must-see TV and captured global attention throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. Despite his passing almost 18 years ago at the age of 69, Knievel remains an icon whose legacy is promoted by Rick Ware Racing (RWR).
RWR team owner Rick Ware, a Los Angeles native who grew up amid Southern California’s car culture, which included everything from hot rods at Pomona, stock cars, sports cars and Indy cars at Riverside, and motorcycles that ripped around the dirt at Ascot, saw Knievel’s rise to prominence in person and in real time. Today, as a successful owner who fields entries across multiple motorsports disciplines, Ware ensures that Knievel’s place in Americana remains strong. He secured a marketing partnership with the Knievel Family and is using Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International to promote the soon-to-be-opened Evel Knievel Museum in Las Vegas.
“Evel Knievel didn’t just ride a motorcycle – he flew it,” said Ware, owner of the No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse that his son, Cody, drives in the Cup Series. “I remember watching him jump buses, fountains, anything you could line up in front of him, and he made it a must-see event every time. I didn’t just see it on television, I was there. His career was filled with jaw-dropping moments that people will never forget. Being able to promote the Evel Knievel Museum in Las Vegas through our race team is our way of keeping those legendary feats front and center.”
The museum will be located in Las Vegas’ downtown Arts District and it will feature a range of mementos from Knievel’s career, with his lineup of motorcycles and star-spangled leather suits being prominently displayed. Following Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen, one more racing suit gets added to the collection – Cody Ware’s firesuit, which mimics the iconic design of Knievel’s leathers and will be worn in Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen.
“Never in a million years would I have ever thought a firesuit of mine would be in any museum, let alone the Evel Knievel Museum,” said the 29-year-old Ware, who will make his 130th career Cup Series start on Sunday. “To have just a fraction of a percent of all the history that will be in the Evel Knievel Museum is a true honor. It will be a really cool opportunity to see it in person when it opens in the spring.”
While the plaques below Knievel’s suits will list how far he traveled when he purposely sailed himself through the air, Ware aims to keep the anecdotes of his firesuit simple and, most importantly, grounded.
“We want to keep at least two wheels on the ground throughout each lap at The Glen,” Ware said.
The 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course that is Watkins Glen is a power track – less finesse, more get-on-the-gas-and-go. Its undulating layout rewards the aggressive, where curbs are attacked and racecars are launched on two wheels as they bicycle around the apron.
“Watkins Glen has a lot of elevation changes, more so than other road courses we visit,” Ware said. “It’s definitely a place where the commitment factor and the confidence level have to be high.”
To exemplify Ware’s point, here is a turn-by-turn explanation of the NASCAR layout at Watkins Glen.
Turn 1: Once drivers take the green flag, they are immediately faced with a downhill trek into the first corner. Carrying a ton of speed down the straightaway, this is a heavy braking zone in order to get the car slowed down enough to make the right-hand turn. This is one of the best opportunities to make a pass, and this turn can get very chaotic, very quickly, especially on restarts.
Turn 2: After making it through the first turn, drivers hop on a short straight which leads them gradually uphill and into the second right-hand corner. This turn begins the ascent through the “esses” portion of the track.
Turn 3: Continuing the uphill climb through the esses, this sweeping left-hander can be treacherous as drivers begin to carry more speed up the slope.
Turn 4: This corner is the final portion of the esses. Drivers complete the uphill climb and the corner starts to level off, building up more speed as they enter the backstretch of the circuit.
Inner Loop, a.k.a the “Bus Stop”: The backstretch allows the drivers to gain significant momentum, which leads them into another heavy braking zone and into the inner loop, better known as the “bus stop” section of the course. Hot on the brakes upon entry, this is a great place to overtake someone before making a quick series of right- and left-hand turns. Lots of slipping, sliding and spinning happens here.
Turn 5, a.k.a the “Carousel”: This is a long, sweeping right-hander. Banked at 10 degrees, it is the steepest turn of the course, and it allows drivers to build up speed as they make their way onto the straightaway leading into turn six.
Turn 6: After gaining speed while traveling down the 2,040-foot chute, drivers are approached with another heavy braking zone at the entrance of this left-hand corner. Competitors use this turn to either make a quick pass or to set themselves up for a pass heading into the final corner.
Turn 7: Once they are through turn six, a short chute gives the drivers just enough time to adjust to make a good angle through the final corner. This is another chance to make a quality pass as the right-hand bend trickles drivers onto the frontstretch and down to the start-finish line.
“You have a lot of elevation change in the first couple of corners,” Ware said. “You get a little bit of a break from that going through the bus stop and then into the carousel, but then you have a lot of elevation change going into the short chute.”
Before becoming a Cup Series regular, Ware raced sports cars. On his way to becoming the 2014 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Rookie of the Year, Ware scored his first victory at Watkins Glen.
“We ran the full course in the Super Trofeo cars, so it was definitely a little bit different from the Cup car,” Ware said. “I think the long course is just a little too technical. There are a couple of places where it’s really slow through there that just wouldn’t make for great racing in a Cup car, so it’s the right call running the short course at Watkins Glen. We just run the carousel straight into the short chute, and I think that layout is way better for stock cars.
“There’s nothing like racing a stock car at Watkins Glen. It’s definitely the most fun car to drive there, for sure.
“Almost every corner is an opportunity for passing. It’s a very wide track with a lot of grip. You can run offline fairly easily at Watkins Glen, so turn one, going into the bus stop, going into the carousel, going into the lefthander after the short chute, you have a lot of opportunities to pass around the whole racetrack. To be able to do that is what makes racing at Watkins Glen so good.”
Ware and his Cup Series counterparts hit the track for the first time on Saturday at 12:05 p.m. EDT when practice begins for the Go Bowling at The Glen, followed shortly afterward by qualifying at 1:10 p.m. EDT. TruTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide live coverage of both. The Go Bowling at The Glen goes green on Sunday at 2 p.m. EDT with flag-to-flag coverage delivered by USA 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.
