Cody Ware Hopes To Be Daytona Wildcard Winner

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Twenty-four drivers earned their first NASCAR Cup Series win at Daytona International Speedway.

Twelve of them did it in the summertime 400-miler. When the checkered flag drops on Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400, Cody Ware wants to be the one to make it a baker’s dozen of first-time winners.

Ware has made 131 career Cup Series starts, and the driver of the No. 51 Arby’s Jamocha Shake Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing has had Daytona circled on his calendar ever since last year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 when he earned his career-best result.

The 29-year-old from Greensboro, N.C., finished fourth, just a few ticks on the stopwatch behind race winner Harrison Burton, who scored his maiden victory in his 98th career Cup Series start.

“We always seem to do well at Daytona every time we go there, but I think even more so in the summer, so why not us?” said Ware about his chances in this year’s race. “I don’t know what it is about the night race, whether it’s the heightened aggression of the field and being able to capitalize on it even more than in the Daytona 500, but I’d say we have just as good a shot as anybody to win on Saturday night.”

The heightened aggression Ware refers to is because the Coke Zero Sugar 400 marks the last race of the regular season and, more specifically, the last chance for drivers to win their way into the final spot of the 16-driver, 10-race playoffs.

Last year’s race was a case in point: 40 lead changes and two massive, multicar accidents that collected nearly half the field.

“That was a bit of survival and a bit of racing hard,” said Ware about securing his fourth-place finish. “It was really about the timing of when I made decisions. It wasn’t about racing hard versus not racing hard. It was knowing when to race and when to ride, and that played a lot into our result.”

Parity reigns at Daytona. At other tracks, drivers balance both mechanical and aerodynamic details to find the sweet spot in their car’s handling.

This leads to a handful of drivers being fast and gapping the field, a bunch of drivers whose cars are an actual handful, and then a group that’s in the middle. At Daytona, the entire 40-car field can be covered with a blanket.

“At Daytona, it’s about as equal as it gets,” Ware said. “The name of the game is survival, and it’s more of a mental game. It’s like playing chess at 200 mph versus beating and banging. It’s not traditional stock car racing.

“I feel like I’ve honed my craft at the superspeedways and the results show. And now more than ever, we’ve put ourselves in position where we’ve had great results. Now is the time to capitalize and put the 51 in victory lane.”

Succeeding at Daytona is not done alone. The draft is crucial. If you’re in it, you can win it. If you’re out on your own, you’re adrift.

“Last year, we had a good drafting partner behind us in Brad Keselowski,” Ware said. “He helped us race hard and get a good restart. That’s a large part of it – who you’ve got behind you and who you’ve got in front of you, who you can push and who’s going to push you.”

RWR is a single-car team, meaning Ware has no default drafting partner. He has to work on the fly to secure an alliance that will help him and his partner run fast and maneuver to the front.

“Finding a drafting partner is situational, especially in this race with it being the last race before the playoffs,” Ware said. “There are guys who will take a lot more risk trying to win their way into the playoffs. Knowing which guys are on the bubble and who is already locked into the playoffs is important. Some guys might be less aggressive, some might be willing to take all the risk, either because it’s their last chance to make the playoffs, or because they’re already in and they feel like they’re playing with house money, so they go hard for another win. So, just having good awareness and navigating all that is important. You do a good bit of homework leading up to the race just to understand where everyone is in the points.”

Preparation, along with confidence from past Daytona performances, has Ware ready for the Coke Zero Sugar 400.

“I’ve built up a lot of confidence at Daytona and its sister track, Talladega. Superspeedway racing just suits my driving style,” Ware said.

“In years past, I took a much more cautious approach to these races. But the last handful of times we’ve been to Daytona and Talladega, I’ve ramped up my aggression level without putting myself in bad spots. I’ve got the confidence to just race hard, get up front, and stay up front.

“I think you either want to be at the very front or the very back. Anywhere else is kind of no man’s land. My goal is get up front and run in that top-10, and I think as long as we execute and don’t make mistakes, we’re going to be in a good place to do just that.”

A.J. Foyt, the racing icon known for always being up front in anything he drove, scored his first Cup Series win in the 1964 Firecracker 400 at Daytona. The other drivers who followed Foyt in earning their first victories in Daytona’s 400-miler were Sam McQuagg (1966), Greg Sacks (1985), Jimmy Spencer (1994), John Andretti (1997), Greg Biffle (2003), David Ragan (2011), Aric Almirola (2014), Erik Jones (2018), Justin Haley (2019), William Byron (2020) and Harrison Burton (2024).