Rick Ware Racing: 67th Running of the Daytona 500

Date:  Feb. 16, 2025

Event:  67th Running of the Daytona 500 (Round 1 of 36)

Series:  NASCAR Cup Series

Location:  Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2.5-mile oval)

Format:  200 laps, broken into three stages (65 laps/65 laps/70 laps)

Note:  Race extended one lap past its scheduled 200-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner:  William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Winner:  Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 2 Winner:  Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

RWR Race Finish:          

●  Corey LaJoie (Started 12th, Finished 22nd / Running, completed 201 of 201 laps)

●  Cody Ware (Started 28th, Finished 25th / Accident, completed 200 of 201 laps)

RWR Points:

●  Corey LaJoie (23rd with 15 points)

●  Cody Ware (27th with 12 points)

RWR Notes:      

●  This was LaJoie’s ninth career start in the Daytona 500, but his 17th career NASCAR Cup Series start at Daytona. His best Daytona finish remains fourth, earned in last year’s Daytona 500.

●  LaJoie led twice for 10 laps, increasing his laps-led total at Daytona to 19.  

●  This was Ware’s fifth career start in the Daytona 500, but his eighth career NASCAR Cup Series start at Daytona. His best Daytona finish remains fourth, earned in the series’ prior race at Daytona last August in the Coke Zero Sugar 400.

Race Notes:       

●  William Byron won the Daytona 500 to score his 14th career NASCAR Cup Series victory. It was his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory and his third overall Cup Series win at Daytona. He became the fifth driver to win back-to-back Daytona 500s and the first since Denny Hamlin (2019-2020). His margin of victory over second-place Tyler Reddick was .113 of a second.

●  There were eight caution periods for a total of 47 laps.

●  Twenty-four of the 41 drivers in the Daytona 500 finished on the lead lap.

●  Ryan Blaney leaves Daytona as the championship leader with a six-point advantage over second-place Alex Bowman.

Sound Bites:

“Here, for what we’re trying to do, it doesn’t matter if you don’t win. Certainly, there is a lot of money involved from potentially finishing third to 22nd or wherever we finished. Nonetheless, I think we had a great showing this week, making it out of the Duel and bringing Take Five and Duramax to the front at Daytona with 10 laps to go was a pretty special experience. I just hate that we couldn’t finish where we should have.” – Corey LaJoie, driver of the No. 01 DuraMAX/Take 5 Oil Change® Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“I think we did everything we could. We slipped our way through it and were on the bottom, but just got clipped in the right rear at the last second. So it’s just super frustrating because the RWR cars were fast. I was kind of hanging back and having my normal strategy. The 01 showed pace running up front all day, and so to have two top-fives taken away from us on the last lap of the race is pretty frustrating. We’ll just move on to Atlanta next weekend and move forward. But thankful that we had fast Ford Mustang Dark Horses on the racetrack. And I know we’ll have two more fast cars at Atlanta next weekend.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Jacob Construction/Parts Plus/Pronto Auto Service Center Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday, Feb. 23 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-RWR-

Contact Mike Arning

True Speed Communication on behalf of Rick Ware Racing

(704) 875-3388, ext. 802 or Mike.Arning@TrueSpeedCommunication.com