Cody Ware will likely return to Rick Ware Racing for select NASCAR races in 2024

Reinstated by NASCAR in December, Cody Ware is ready to move past his legal troubles and focus on racing for the 2024 season. Right now, that means racing in the LMP3 category at Daytona and doing well in his stint.

Cody Ware finished third on Saturday in the 45-minute event. He inevitably wound up 8th on Sunday due to a 10-second penalty. However, that isn’t the big story here. At least, not when it comes to NASCAR.

For the 2024 season, Rick Ware Racing has announced Justin Haley as a full-time driver in the No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Kaz Grala will have 25 starts in the No. 15 car as his teammate.

Now, it appears Ware is going to fill in for some of, if not the rest of the races for that car this season.

“Not set in stone, but tentatively plans are to be back in the Cup car in April,” Ware said, via The Daytona Beach News-Journal. “We’re dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s there, with sponsorships and getting everything lined up.

“After my suspension last year, I lost the majority of my sponsorships, so we’re trying to build everything back up after that.”

Sponsorship is the name of the game and Cody Ware is going to have to find partners willing to team up with him. Rick Ware Racing has a lot of team sponsors, so that might be the path here for Cody.

Cody Ware returning to Rick Ware Racing, good or bad?

When you look at the moves that Rick Ware has made to get ready for 2024, they are all really good. Each one of them makes sense and it is clear why they are making these decisions, prove to NASCAR they deserve two charters and are trying to get better.

Signing Justin Haley, massive. Moving into the RFK Racing shop as part of their new alliance, awesome. Signing Kaz Grala for 25 races? That’s great! Bringing Cody Ware back, that remains to be seen.

In 97 races, Cody Ware has a single top-10 finish. Prior to his suspension in 2023, Ware had a season-best finish of P14 at Daytona. His average finish in seven races was 27.7. Haley and Grala are 24 and 25 years old, respectively and they both have won in NASCAR before.

So, forgive me for being hesitant to celebrate this move. I get the family team aspect of this. However, after seeing all of the other strong moves this offseason, I’m not sure this is quite up to part with the rest.