Rick Ware Racing entered a second car, the No. 01 Ford, for the third time in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series two Sundays ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, and Corey LaJoie was once again behind the wheel.
LaJoie competed for the team alongside full-time driver Cody Ware in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, as well as the following weekend's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but he did not return until the Bristol race.
The series had off this past weekend, marking the one and only off weekend embedded into the 36-race schedule. But after finishing in 34th place at Bristol, LaJoie will not be back at Talladega.
Rick Ware Racing only running one car at Talladega
The decision not to run the No. 01 Ford is a curious one for Rick Ware Racing. First and foremost, Talladega, like any superspeedway, is largely an equalizer, and it gives smaller teams such as Rick Ware's program a much greater chance of running at the front than other tracks do, and like you'd expect, they took advantage of that by running at Daytona and Atlanta.
Secondly, LaJoie has four career top five finishes, and all four have come in superspeedway races, including a career-high-tying fourth place finish at Talladega back in October 2023.
And then there is the fact that there are 39 cars on the entry list for Sunday afternoon's 188-lap Jack Link's 500 around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval, meaning that any further additions still would not have resulted in anybody failing to qualify.
The three non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list include the No. 44 NY Racing Team Chevrolet for J.J. Yeley, the No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet for Anthony Alfredo, and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet for B.J. McLeod.
Those three drivers, driving for those three teams, all ironically failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, while LaJoie qualified 12th and led laps, so again, Talladega would have been a perfect opportunity for Rick Ware Racing to enter the No. 01 Ford for LaJoie.
Alas, they opted against it. LaJoie's next confirmed start is set to come in the late June race at Atlanta, where he has also finished as high as fourth (March 2023) but crashed out back in February. No additional starts have been confirmed for Rick Ware's second entry at this time.
Fox is set to provide live coverage of the Jack Link's 500 from Talladega Superspeedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, April 27. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action from the longest oval on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar!