Rick Ware Racing lawsuit claims Cody Ware allegations cost $3.5 million in sponsorship

Cody Ware is no longer facing charges that kept him indefinitely suspended from NASCAR, and the Rick Ware Racing team paid a price. In April, Ware was arrested for assault by strangulation and assault causing serious injury. His now ex-girlfriend was charged with simple assault in September.

All charges have been dropped for Cody Ware and his ex-girlfriend and Ware has been reinstated by NASCAR.

However, the damage seems to have been done to Rick Ware Racing in 2023. It is no secret that they had to field a number of drivers this season in order to keep their obligations on the race track.

At times, we saw Andy Lally, Ryan Newman, Cole Custer, Todd Gilliland, and others in the Rick Ware Racing car. When you hire that many drivers, it costs money. And when your driver, whose name is the same as the organization – it costs the team sponsorship dollars.

According to Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, Rick Ware Racing had filed a lawsuit. In the lawsuit, it claims that Ware’s ex-girlfriend “made statements to the police and others that were not true” in order to damage Cody’s career and RWR.

Also in the lawsuit, it claims a loss of $3.5 million in sponsorship money. The team says they spent more than $300,000 to hire replacement drivers such as Newman and others.

Rick Ware Racing relied on Parts Plus and Biohaven/Jacob Companies for most of their sponsorship. However, PublicSq. is a sponsor that was noticeably missing after Ware’s legal troubles. Nurtec ODT was noticeably missing, however, they are owned by Biohaven.

That’s a ton of money to lose in a sport that relies so heavily on funding. The lawsuit is going to be dropped as well in this matter.

Rick Ware Racing gets through legal issues

Now that Cody Ware has been reinstated and Rick Ware Racing has decisions to make. Let’s be honest, they hit a home run with Justin Haley in 2024. The RFK Racing alliance is going to pay dividends for this group.

There has been little to no word about the second RWR car. That could be for a number of reasons. However, with Cody reinstated I feel like we’re going to get an idea of what the plans are for the 2024 season in that second car.

I expect it to be an “All-Star” car again. While I think it can work with a couple of drivers, putting three, four, five, six drivers in a car in a single season is just not a path to success. Rick Ware Racing made it out of 2023 with their charters still in hand – they don’t need to give NASCAR a reason to regret that decision.

Legal issues aside, looking at it from a racing standpoint – is Cody Ware the best choice for the car and team? That remains to be seen and up to the folks at Rick Ware Racing.