Bluntly speaking, Rick Ware Racing has been something of a punchline in the NASCAR Cup Series over the past near decade, but everyone associated with the organization insisted there was a pathway to contention.
Prior to the introduction of the NextGen car, the Rick Ware Racing cars were well underfunded and commensurately non-competitive, but the spec platform brought them closer to the median and now it is looking to take another step forward.
That began last year with an alliance with RFK Racing and the addition of Justin Haley to drive the flagship No. 51 with Chris Lawson serving as crew chief. Lawson, who has been one of the top Truck Series crew chiefs over the past two years with Front Row Motorsports, was an especially telling hire as his competitive nature is understated.
Lawson and Haley both wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t a promise of competition for meaningful results and team president Robby Benton said he expects just that on Tuesday during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“Bringing in guys like Justin Haley, who will be full-time in the 51 and splitting the No. 15 entry between guys like Riley Herbst, who got his first Xfinity win last season, and Kaz Grala, who I think is going to surprise a lot of people, I think they’re going to make a big statement,” Benton said on the Morning Shift program.
“We don’t have an excuse why we can’t win and I think that’s what we have to lean into. Rick and Lisa (Ware) have done a great job of really investing heavily into all of their race teams. When we look at everything we do across the board, every one of our other teams wins, poles, wins races and now we have the NASCAR program to where that is on the same track.”
Again, this is a big statement from a team that has perpetually existed outside of the top-30 for its entire existence.
“Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that we’re going to go to the racetrack and expect to win races, expect to be in the playoffs and expect to chase a championship,” Benton said. “But what I will tell you is probably for the first time ever, RWR has no reason why it can’t do that.
“So, what we need to do is, is lean into that. We need to execute well every week. We’ve got the right people in the right places. I feel like we’ve got all the right relationships and agreements and support. So yeah, I think that if we were to go and win a race, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
A lot of that sentiment comes down to the RFK relationship.
Chris Buescher won three times last year and most of them came with teammate and team owner Brad Keselowski right alongside him in the mix. The former Roush Racing spent the past decade in a somewhat dormant state until the arrival of Keselowski and the NextGen car.
For the Ware team, they provide RFK additional data while RFK gives them industry leading insight and direction to get their cars going down the right path in return.
“With how we’re going to start our year, with our driver lineup, I think we’re going to be able to offer them more in terms of operating like a four car team,” Benton said. “The way we share information and how we look at what each other are doing with the limited nature of practice right now.
“It just adds strength both ways, but for us, it helps lessen the learning curve. We’re in year three of the NextGen car and we’re definitely seeing benefits. And with any alliance, it kind of comes down to relationships and there are a lot of old relationships that exists between the folks at RWR and RFK.
Even as the Cup Series program struggled, waiting until the arrival of the new car, and then adapting to it, the overall organization established a competitive reputation elsewhere. It wins in NHRA with Clay Milliken and has contended for wins in series like IndyCar and the NASCAR Canada Series.
Those were all about establishing a culture that would eventually bleed over into the Cup Series this year and that journey starts with the Daytona 500.
“I think we will take a conservative approach,” Benton said. “I’m not going to go so far as to say that we’re just going to hang back but I think we will watch how the race unfolds. We’ll try to make smart choices.
“I think that we will be conservative with respect to risks that we might take early on. We’re going to go and get every point that we can get because every single point is important and we want to start the season, through the first couple of races, stack as many points as we can.
“At the same time, it’s Daytona 500. We know we have drivers in both cars that are strong enough to win. So we want to be conservative enough to make sure that we’re there at the end too.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.