MOORESVILLE, N.C. — The calendar notifications on Rick Ware’s mobile phone are incessant. The frequent buzzes and constant dings are ever-present reminders that the sun never sets at Rick Ware Racing.
This weekend highlights the scope of RWR’s motorsports footprint. The No. 51 Mighty Fire Breaker Ford Mustang Dark Horse RWR fields for Cody Ware in the NASCAR Cup Series is at Phoenix Raceway for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.
Two thousand miles and two time zones east in Gainesville, Florida, the 12,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster that Clay Millican pilots for RWR in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series kicks off its season with the 56th annual Gatornationals.
One hundred miles southeast of Gainesville at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway, Progressive American Flat Track begins its 2025 campaign with rider Chase Saathoff representing RWR in the 450 Singles class and RWR rider Briar Bauman in the SuperTwins division.
Sure, Ware is not the only team owner to field entries in multiple series. Penske, Trackhouse and McLaren immediately come to mind. But RWR is the most diverse. NASCAR tracks. NHRA dragstrips. Dirt ovals lined with hay bales. Four wheels. Two wheels. RWR is there, domestically and internationally, as its FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) team doesn’t begin its season until October at iconic London Stadium, home of West Ham United Football Club.
“It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a seven-day-a-week, 52-week endeavor, so you have to love it,” said Ware, a native of Los Angeles who relocated to North Carolina in the mid-1990s. “I’m going to be in Florida this weekend, splitting my time between AFT in Daytona and NHRA in Gainesville. I don’t get to as many AFT and Top Fuel races as I would like, so with each being in the same state and relatively close, I need to make the most of the schedule.”
At any one time, stock cars, dragsters, motorcycles and the sportscars from RWR’s 2019-2020 LMP2 championship in the Asian Le Mans Series and podium finish last January in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 class at Daytona are all under one roof.
“This is a very addictive sport. To be on podiums and to hoist trophies, and to high-five for top-10s and even top-20s in NASCAR, is really something else,” Ware said. “That being said, we’re in the business of trying to win races, so you need to make a business case to justify why you do it. This platform allows us to have a diverse volume of events, from coast to coast, where we can deliver for our partners.”
In addition to that Asian Le Mans Series championship, RWR has delivered championships on the two-wheeled front. It won the 2022 WSX 250cc class title with rider Shane McElrath, and a second motorcycle crown was earned last year when rider Kody Kopp delivered the AFT 450 Singles class title to RWR.
Among those championships are wins. Millican has four Top Fuel event victories since joining RWR in late 2022, including last year’s U.S. Nationals, drag racing’s equivalent of the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500. And AFT rider Bauman, now in his third season with RWR, has earned four of his 26 career SuperTwins wins with RWR.
“We want to win in every series where we compete, but that’s tough to do in these disciplines. By fielding entries in different series, we’re able to provide a broader reach to our partners,” Ware said. “When we earn success in one discipline, it’s every partners’ success too. This also allows our partners to reach a variety of demographics.
“For instance, motorcycle racing skews younger, while NASCAR has a little bit older audience. With the cross-promotion we’re able to do with all of these different racing series, what we offer is financially beneficial for brands. They can engage more of their customers and VIP guests with more opportunities and different experiences. It’s allowed us to really bring added value to all of our partners.”
Arby’s is RWR’s most recent example. When Millican won the U.S. Nationals, he did it with Arby’s adorned on his nitro-powered Top Fuel dragster. The victory fueled a partnership that in 2025 extends to the NASCAR Cup Series. Arby’s is the primary partner on the No. 51 Ford Mustang for 12 races, all while remaining with Millican’s Top Fuel ride, including a return to the U.S. Nationals.
“I love motorsports, and I don’t care if it’s two-wheel, four-wheel, it doesn’t matter to me, I love it and I keep up with it,” Millican said. “That’s the way we’re all wired at RWR. We’re committed to performing and, even before that, we’re committed to putting in the prep work to perform. And that’s not just on the track. We know we need to deliver off the track, and whatever we have to do to make that happen, we do it. That’s a racer’s mentality. You just find a way.”
The brands visible on one RWR entry are typically seen on the multiple entries in the various disciplines where RWR competes.
“We’ve had partners who had traditionally been active in the NHRA, but we exposed them to NASCAR and American Flat Track, and now they’re activating across all three of these series,” Ware said. “When you deliver that kind of return, where what you’re able to provide is unique from everyone else, that’s how you continue to grow.”
Cody Ware has had a front-row seat to the time, energy and effort his father has put into RWR.
“When I see where we are now compared to where we were five years ago, you can’t even compare. It’s a whole different race team now,” Cody said. “With what we’ve accomplished on the AFT and NHRA side, I think it’s helped us gain respect in NASCAR and motorsports as a whole. To win NHRA’s crown jewel in the U.S. Nationals with Clay Millican, and to win last year’s AFT 450 Singles championship with Kody Klopp, and the 2022 WSX 250 class title with Shane McElrath, I mean, that doesn’t just magically happen. The organization put in a lot of work to earn those wins and championships, and I think that’s given dad the confidence to continue to build the NASCAR program.
“NASCAR takes a lot more manpower and engineering resources and, quite frankly, dollars, compared to some of the other series, but it’s still an upward trajectory.”
It’s that grind to constantly improve, to be better than the last finish, to go quicker than the last pass, which drives Ware.
“I haven’t been able to always stop and smell the roses, like I should,” Ware said. “That’s one of the goals I’m going to try to achieve this year, because it is pretty cool and I’m proud of the people I have around me. They’ve worked so hard to make all of this happen. It’s cool to see people happy and excited about the success we’ve earned, and that’s really important to me.”
So, what does success look like this weekend?
Millican: “It’s leaving Gainesville with a Wally. That’s what our trophy is called, after NHRA founder Wally Parks, and that’s what we want. We know we’re capable of doing it – we’ve done it with RWR multiple times now – so winning is the bar for success.”
Saathoff, who takes over the reigning championship-winning ride in AFT’s 450 Singles class: “I’m shooting for the podium. I want to win every weekend, but the competition is tough. I was a privateer last year, so to be with a team of this caliber, I want to be smart and make the most of it.”
Bauman: “We’ve gotten a couple days of testing, and my goal is to get on the podium and win. I’m back with my crew chief and my mechanic from about eight years prior. We’ve all won together before, and we aim to do that again this year.”
Cody Ware: “It’s been a rough start to our year on the NASCAR side. I just want a good, clean weekend where we come out with a solid finish and get our season pointed in the right direction.”
Perhaps the opinion that matters most is that of the team owner.
“Most of all, I want to make sure all of our partners are happy and that we’ve helped them reach their goals. That’s job one,” Ware said. “I would really like to get a top-25 at Phoenix in the Cup race. I’m expecting to be on both podiums in Singles and SuperTwins in Flat Track and, man, I sure hope we get to the final round at the Gatornationals. We have the riders and drivers and the programs in place to do all of that. Obviously, there are a lot of variables – riders can get knocked down, we can blow stuff up in the Top Fuel car, and we can have issues at the mile at Phoenix, but that success is achievable, and it all just helps us grow our fan base, deliver for our partners, and add value to the series we’re competing in.”
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