NASCAR: One notable lineup change for Charlotte race
By Asher Fair
Cody Ware is set to compete behind the wheel of the #53 car, not the #51 car, for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Cody Ware is in his first season as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver, and in the season’s first 14 races, he had piloted the #51 Chevrolet for Petty Ware Racing, the team owned by his father Rick Ware and run using a charter from Richard Petty Motorsports.
However, Ware will not be behind the wheel of the #51 Chevrolet in the longest race of the 2021 season, this Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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Instead, Garrett Smithley is set to pilot the #51 Chevrolet in this 400-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) oval in Concord, North Carolina.
But Ware is still set to compete in the race.
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The 25-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina native is set to drive the #53 Ford for Rick Ware Racing instead, and the reason for this interestingly has to do with the Indy 500.
Initially, Ware had planned to compete in his first Indy 500 for Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing behind the wheel of the #52 Honda. But he was unable to secure sponsorship for this ride, and the #52 Honda ended up not being entered in this year’s running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.
Even if Ware had run this race, however, he would not have been able to run the Memorial Day Double, meaning he would not have competed in the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and then flown to Charlotte Motor Speedway to compete in the Coca-Cola 600, something that only four drivers have ever managed to do.
So before Ware ultimately found out that he would not be competing in the Indy 500, it had already been determined that Smithley would pilot Ware’s #51 Chevrolet in Sunday’s Cup Series race. Those plans haven’t changed, but Ware is, in fact, still set to compete in the race after all.
Rick Ware Racing have four charters, so their four cars, the #15 car, the #51 car, the #52 car and the #53 car, are all guaranteed starting spots in each race. The #15 car and #53 car do not have full-time drivers.
The #52 car is driven full-time by Josh Bilicki, and James Davison, an Indy 500 veteran himself who opted not to pursue a ride in that race this year, is set to drive the #15 car on Sunday.
So Ware was put into #53 car for the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, given the fact that he will not be competing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier in the day.
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Tune in to Fox at 6:00 p.m. ET this evening for the live broadcast of the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway. Ware qualified his #53 Ford in 34th place ahead of Smithley’s #51 Chevrolet in 36th.