Cody Ware

Ware started and finished 39th, retiring from the race on lap 74 with steering problems.

Cody Shane Ware (born November 7, 1995) is an American professional auto racing driver.

He competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 15 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing and in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge for RWR with Ave Motorsports.

A third-generation driver with experience in stock car, sports car, and open-wheel racing, he is the son of NASCAR team owner Rick Ware.

In 2014, Ware competed in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series, winning Rookie of the Year honors.

In their first race at Shanghai International Circuit, despite missing qualifying and only having two laps of practice, Ware and Kvamme finished second in the LMPS Am class and 14th overall.

In August 2014, he made his debut in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, starting 26th and finishing 15th for RWR.

Over the next five seasons, among the teams he raced for were MBM Motorsports, B. J. McLeod Motorsports, Team Kapusta Racing, and Mike Harmon Racing.

In 2015, Ware joined MAKE Motorsports full-time for the 2015 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, competing for Rookie of the Year honors.

However, on May 1, Ware announced that he would be leaving the team to attend college full-time, with aspirations for a pre-medical degree.

Ware was replaced by Travis Kvapil in the No. 50.

In June 2016, Ware attempted to make his Sprint Cup Series debut in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, driving the No. 55 for Premium Motorsports, but he failed to qualify.

Ware returned to the Truck Series in 2017, driving the No. 12 for RWR on a part-time basis.

He joined RWR's Cup Series program, driving the No. 51 part-time in 2017.

He made his Cup debut in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta, driving the No. 51 with sponsorship from Spoonful of Music and Bubba Burger.

At Dover and Pocono, Ware's No. 51 acquired sponsorship from East Carolina University and Clemson University, respectively, with the latter also featuring logos celebrating the football team's 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship win earlier in the year.

During the Dover race, Ware withdrew from the event after 283 of 406 laps after developing back pain.

A week later at Pocono, he left the race after completing 35 laps, again for back problems.

He was scheduled to drive at Michigan but Ware decided to stay out of the car for the race and the team did not find a replacement driver in time.

He returned to the No. 51 for Darlington's Bojangles' Southern 500, where he drove a car painted like Tom Cruise character Cole Trickle's Mello Yello vehicle of the same number in the film Days of Thunder; Ware's No. 51 featured logos saying "Pray for Texas", with RWR producing merchandise of the car and donating all proceeds to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

On lap 157, Ware was involved in a wreck with Matt DiBenedetto and A. J. Allmendinger; after the race, Ware and DiBenedetto argued on Twitter over responsibility for the wreck.

He attempted but failed to qualify for the 2018 season opener at Daytona with Mike Harmon Racing.

When DiBenedetto faulted Ware for the incident, the latter replied by falsely accusing him of infidelity, causing a firestorm that led to Ware deleting his social media for the rest of the season and up through 2018.

A few months later, in February 2018, Ware restarted his Facebook profile and announced his Asperger's diagnosis in May.

In 2018, Ware transitioned to motorcycle racing, but returned to the Cup Series for RWR at Dover.

He also ran the Sonoma race, where he would DNF and place last.

Ware won the Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 Am championship in 2019–20 with Rick Ware Racing.

In 2019, Rick Ware Racing formed an Asian Le Mans Series program with Ware and Mark Kvamme as drivers of the Ligier JS P2.

During the 2019 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, Ware was replaced by Stefan Parsons after feeling unwell due to a damaged coolbox in his car.

Ware later revealed in a January 2019 interview that the incident with DiBenedetto was one of his "biggest setbacks ever," but acknowledged "hitting rock bottom (after that) was the best thing that happened to me because that really gave me the wake-up call of 'hey, this is only going to get worse, and you're never going to come back from it unless you do something about it right now.'"

Ware increased his Cup schedule in 2019 to 13 races, which also included the Daytona 500; in the race, he and RWR teammate B. J. McLeod crashed while several cars were entering pit road, causing him to finish 39th.

At Sonoma, he was forced to exit the race on lap 64 when broken air conditioning caused him to suffer carbon monoxide poisoning.

In September, he intended to race at the Charlotte Roval, but was replaced by J. J. Yeley as he continued to feel unwell from his damaged coolbox in the previous day's Xfinity race.

On November 23, Ware announced he would compete in the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans for EuroInternational.

In January 2020's Asian Le Mans race at The Bend Motorsport Park, Ware and co-driver Gustas Grinbergas finished fifth overall and recorded the LMP2 Am Trophy class win.

In August 2020, Ware made his GT4 America Series SprintX debut at Sonoma Raceway, where he finished fifth overall and third in the Silver class for Dexter Racing.

When RWR partnered with Eurasia Motorsport to form RWR Eurasia for the 2021 24 Hours of Daytona, Ware was among the team's LMP2 drivers alongside Austin Dillon, Salih Yoluç, and Sven Müller.

In January 2024, Ware competed in the 2024 IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge in the Ligier JS P320 LMP3 for Rick Ware Racing with Ave Motorsports, where he finished 3rd in the first race and 8th in the second race.

Ware returned to RWR's reformed Xfinity Series team in 2020 at the Charlotte Roval, where he recorded his first series top-ten finish in seventh.

His lone 2020 Cup start was the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.