Why Cody Ware is not racing in the Bristol dirt race?

Why Cody Ware is not racing in the Bristol dirt race?

Cody Ware

Rick Ware Racing has announced that Cody Ware will not race with them in the No:52 Ford Mustang on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. The team has announced two times Truck Series champion veteran Matt Crafton as the replacement driver. It will be the ThorSports veteran’s first Cup race since Martinsville 2019.

His absence from the first and only dirt race in the 2023 Cup schedule via a press release from the team. The team revealed that “Cody Ware will step away from racing this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway to focus on a personal matter,”. The team also asked for respect for the privacy of the Ware family “The Ware family asks that their privacy be respected during this time.”.

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“Matt Crafton will drive the No. 51 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing. Crafton has over 500 overall starts in his NASCAR career, winning back-to-back NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championships in 2013 and 2014,” RWR added.

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The race will be a good opportunity for veteran Crafton to showcase his skills and abilities in the Premier racing series in the dusk of his career. The 46-year-old driver never got the opportunity to establish himself outside the Truck Series. He has been driving in the series since the start of the century. But he has only driven 5 races in the Cup and Xfinity. He started three Xfinity and 2 Cup races and failed to qualify in a Cup race attempt at Indy in 2014.

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How the 2023 season so far has been for Cody Ware

Cody Ware 2
Cody Ware

Cody Ware made his NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2017 at Atlanta and was given a semi-full-time seat in 2021. He drove the No:51 and No:54 Chevy in 2021. All his finishes that season was outside the top 20, with the best result being a P21 at Daytona. He improved his racing in 2022 and was able to score some finishes in the top 20.

He finished inside the Top 20 4 times and scored his career-best finish of P8 in the Daytona second regular season race. He had a solid start to his 2023 season as he secured a P14 finish at Daytona 500. But since then, it hasn’t scored a single finish inside the Top 20.  The 2019 Asian LeMans Racing winner will be hoping for a solid comeback after the Bristol miss.

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