MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 26, 2026) – Daytona is where it’s at for Cody Ware.
The 2.5-mile superspeedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, is home to Ware’s best career NASCAR Cup Series finish and it’s where the driver of the No. 51 Super.com Chevrolet has led the most laps.
The Coke Zero Sugar 400, in particular, has been his best race at Daytona. Ware finished fourth in the 2024 Coke Zero Sugar 400 and in the Cup Series’ summertime stop last year at the “World Center of Racing,” he scored the third-highest laps-led total. And when Ware wasn’t leading the 40-car field, he was a constant presence among the top-10.
“In years past, I took a much more cautious approach to these superspeedway races, but the last handful of times we’ve been to Daytona, I’ve ramped up my aggression level without putting myself in bad spots,” Ware said. “I’ve got the confidence to just race hard, get up front, and stay up front.”
That confidence was on display in last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, where despite starting 35th, Ware was leading by lap 39.
“It was definitely a cool experience for me, the team and our partners,” Ware said. “It was a little surreal. Being up there on merit and having the pace to lead and command the field was exciting, stressful and fun – a slew of different emotions.
“I’ve always enjoyed the superspeedways. They’re one of the great equalizers for the Cup Series. After what we learned at Daytona the last time we were there, now’s the time to capitalize and not just focus on a good result, but be right where we want to be when the checkered flag falls.”
Racing at Daytona means being part of a 200 mph freight train. The resulting draft creates pack racing, and drivers can’t outrun the pack on their own. They have to rely on others, specifically the gaggle of cars around them and their collective aerodynamics, to gain speed. By tucking in tightly behind one another, drivers reduce the amount of air resistance on their cars. It’s a high-speed chess match where side drafting, bump drafting and strategic line selection determine who moves forward and who gets shuffled back.
“Every time we go to Daytona, we inch that much closer to really being in contention for the win,” Ware said. “The last couple of races, the end result didn’t reflect our work. Leading laps and being up front – that’s become more consistent each time we’ve been out on track. It’s momentum, and it’s grown my confidence and grown the team’s confidence.”
Confidence is as necessary as horsepower, especially when drivers spend as much time looking in the rearview mirror as they do looking out the windshield.
“I’d say you’re looking more at your rearview mirror when you’re leading than out the front,” Ware clarified. “When you’re wide open and leading, you’re looking to see when the guys behind you are starting to get aggressive and impatient to make their moves. You’re relying on your spotter to tell you what’s going on while also driving off your mirror.”
Brent Wentz is Ware’s spotter, a seasoned veteran who has been in the ear of drivers across Cup, IndyCar and IMSA and counts a 2020 Indianapolis 500 win with Takuma Sato among his accomplishments.
“Brent’s letting me know what lines are gaining, forming or dissipating, and really kind of keeping me abreast of not just who’s running where, but when the aggression level ramps up,” Ware said. “Are people saving fuel? Has the pace picked up? Is action starting to happen? Are there potential wrecks that are about to unfold? I have a very limited view of what I can see myself, but he can see the entire pack. His job is to quickly paint a picture of what’s going on in front of me, behind me, and around me, and tell me how the race is evolving.”
There will be another evolution to this year’s race. Cup cars come into the Coke Zero Sugar 400 with a different rules package than they had seven months ago for the season-opening Daytona 500.
A 4-inch rear spoiler, down from 7 inches, and 465 horsepower, reduced from 510, will debut at Daytona. The idea is that less drag will allow drivers to move through the field by passing rather than relying on track position gained through various fuel-saving strategies.
“I had some time in the simulator to emulate what all these changes are going to be like, and my gut tells me there’s going to be more attrition than we’ve seen at the recent superspeedway races,” Ware said.
“I think the cars are going to be harder to drive, but it’s going to be easier to make passes. So I think that you can run a more conservative race because the idea behind this package is that you can make your own line and you can make passes – you don’t have to have as much momentum on the guys around you to make and complete a pass. That opens up the strategy book a little bit. It’s an opportunity to take advantage of because it puts the race up for grabs by anyone.”
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 goes green at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday with live coverage by NBC 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.
