NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500 MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
FEBRUARY 11, 2026
Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet – 2026 DAYTONA 500 Media Day Quotes:
Thoughts on Daytona this year?
“Yeah anytime we can get back to racing, it’s always exciting. There is always a lot of chaos and uncertainty that goes into the 500 but I think the focus is to continue to build the relationship we have started with RCR and Chevrolet and my team, Billy Plourde and Dave Jones, my crew chief and car chief, they’ve done an awesome job prepping during the offseason. I think the fruits of that are starting to show between the little bit of track time we’ve had here and at Bowman Grey.”
There are drivers down here who were underdogs that have won. Is this a race that anyone can win?
“I think what that shows is that it is anyone’s race. You have guys like Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell, guys that I’ve had good relationships with over the years when the stars fall and everything aligns, it really is anybody’s race. I think the biggest thing for me is to take what I’ve learned from leading laps last year in the fall race to building a program where we have the cars that are capable of winning and I still need to work on myself to make sure were in contention. But I think it is anyone race and I think it’s going to be an exciting year.”
Talk about the move to Chevrolet and the relationship with RCR:
“From my personal experience having spent a lot of time at RCR and the GM Tech Center, there are a lot of tools that are available not just to the race team but also myself as a driver are invaluable. RCR has a static SIM rig that I have access too pretty much 24/7 with their engineers as well as the GM Tech Center using their full motion rig and static rig. So to be able to work with RCR and their engineers has been good not just for the team, but for myself as a driver to continue to improve and make myself better because I don’t want to fall behind as our equipment and our expectations and performance is getting better, I need to make sure that I am improving as well. I think all in all I’ve seen just an across the board improvement but it’s still very very early because we haven’t had a points race yet, but I’m super optimistic with the alliance and switching manufacturers.”
You led 23 laps last year at Daytona. Can you recreate that magic?
“I think confidence has a lot to do with it. Having the confidence to go out there and lead and learning what it takes to lead and modulate a line in a draft pack like that. And just to continue to learn on that and not do it for a flash-in-the-pan moment but being able to consistently do it and also extract more speed out of the cars. Also fuel milage is also an important part and one of the things is we burned a lot of fuel doing that so knowing the time and the place to do that versus burning up fuel and creating a bad pit strategy for the team as well. But I’m excited to about Daytona especially after last fall and the new alliance with Chevrolet and RCR.”
About General Motors
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.
