MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 10, 2025) – A diverse motorsports career that began more than 40 years ago and continues to this day earned racing team owner and California native Rick Ware a place in the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
Induction took place back in March in conjunction with the NASCAR Cup Series’ visit to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but this Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway marks Ware’s first trip to the Sunshine State since being honored amongst his Class of 2025 counterparts, which included AJ Allmendinger (Los Gatos, California), Chuck Gurney (Oakland, California), Davey Hamilton (Nampa, Idaho), Jeff Jefferson (Naches, Washington), Justin Marks (Menlo Park, California) and Boris Said (Carlsbad, California).
“It’s truly an honor to be a part of the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame Class of 2025,” Ware said. “I’m a proud Californian and growing up on the West Coast put me right in the heart of racing and hot-rod culture. For me, there was no better place to be. To make a career out of motorsports and to be recognized for all the time, energy and effort we put into everything we do at RWR, really means a lot.”
Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for nearly five decades. 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 Ware’s home track, Riverside International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries forced Ware out of the driver’s seat and into fulltime team ownership.
In 1995, Rick Ware Racing (RWR) was formed, and with wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that fields a fulltime entry in the 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 (AFT), FIM World Supercross Championship and zMAX CARS Tour.
Now returning to California for this weekend’s Cup Series race at Sonoma, Cody Ware, son of Rick and driver of RWR’s No. 51 Mighty Firebreaker Ford Mustang Dark Horse, reminisces on that moment when his father was honored for his years of diligence, perseverance and sacrifice.
“To sit at the table and enjoy that moment, seeing decades of my dad’s hard work pay off and come to fruition, was just a really awesome experience,” said the younger Ware. “You take so many lumps when you’re in the racing business, to see my dad earn such an honor was definitely something we’ll never forget as a family. So, it’s always cool to go back out West, kind of where my dad’s whole career began both as a driver and as an owner.”
While Southern California is where the elder Ware spent most of his time, the entire state served as his motorsports playground.
“I’ve been to some of the most iconic venues in North American motorsports, first as a fan with my dad, then as a driver, and then as a team owner,” Rick said. “Riverside, Long Beach, Pomona, Irwindale, Del Mar, Ontario, Laguna Seca, Ascot… I look back and realize just how blessed I’ve been.”
Cody Ware, now 29, has seen his dad build RWR from the ground up.
“I remember the early beginnings of Rick Ware Racing when it was still Ware Racing Enterprises, running out of a race shop in Thomasville, North Carolina,” Cody said. “From just trying to make it to Truck Series and Busch Series, now Xfinity Series, races, and taking a big gamble on making a jump to the Cup Series, where dad risked a lot to make the investment of acquiring a charter. He’s taken a lot of calculated risks that have gotten him to where he is today. It’s been decades of hard work, perseverance, not giving up. He turned a small, family-run race team into a massive enterprise, not just in NASCAR, but competitive and winning races and even championships in multiple disciplines, here in the states and overseas. It’s just really cool to be a part of it all.”
RWR had one of its best seasons last year when its NHRA Top Fuel driver Clay Millican won the prestigious U.S. Nationals and rider Kody Kopp won the AFT 450cc class championship.
Millican’s victory was RWR’s fourth NHRA Top Fuel win since entering NHRA in 2023. Kopp’s title secured RWR’s third championship. RWR rider Shane McElrath won the 2022 FIM World Supercross 250cc class title. RWR’s first championship came in sports cars, specifically the Asian Le Mans Series, where co-drivers Cody Ware and Gustas Grinbergas won the 2019-2020 LMP2 class title.
Thus far in 2025, Millican added another victory when he won the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals March 30 at California’s In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip. AFT rider Briar Bauman, meanwhile, is RWR’s winningest personality, having racked up a series-high four victories in the Mission AFT SuperTwins division, riding his No. 3 Parts Plus/Latus Motors Harley-Davidson XG750R to the championship lead at the midpoint of the season. And on the zMAX CARS Tour, two victories by two different drivers have been secured – Luke Baldwin on April 27 at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina, and Carson Ware, Cody’s younger brother, on May 3 at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina.
“We do this because we love it,” Rick Ware said. “Racing is hard, really hard. So, you’ve got to have a passion for it. The hard times make you appreciate success so much more, and our success comes from our people. We have excellent people at RWR and I’m proud of their skills and their spirit.”
That passion arrives at Sonoma, where Cody Ware will tackle the 1.99-mile, 10-turn road course for the first time since 2022.
“Sonoma has a lot of elevation changes and it presents some pretty good passing opportunities,” said Cody, who has four prior Cup Series starts at Sonoma. “The layout makes for some really aggressive, tight racing. Anytime you put a stock car on a road course with that kind of elevation, it creates some really good racing. I’m looking forward to getting back there. It’s one of the coolest road courses we go to, for sure.”
Ware and his Cup Series counterparts hit the track for the first time on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. PDT/1:30 p.m. EDT for a 25-minute practice before qualifying at 11:40 a.m. PDT/2:40 p.m. EDT. TruTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide live coverage of both. Sunday’s 110-lap race goes live at 12:30 p.m. PDT/3:30 p.m. EDT 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.
