With Cody Ware serving an indefinite suspension following his assault arrest on Monday, Rick Ware Racing has entrusted the #51 Ford Mustang to Zane Smith for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. The start means he will run two races over the weekend as he is also entered in the Craftsman Truck Series event on Friday.
“Double duty! Excited to gain some more experience & fill in for @RickWareRacing in the #51 this weekend @MartinsvilleSwy,” Smith tweeted on Wednesday.
Ware was the #51’s main driver, racing full-time in the car since 2022 and was thirty-first in points after the first seven races in 2023. However, he was pulled from the seat and replaced by Matt Crafton for Sunday’s Bristol Dirt Race before news surfaced of his arrest the following day. He was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR after the development.
“We understand NASCAR’s position on this matter and accept their decision,” reads an RWR statement after the suspension. “The matter is still under investigation and Cody is fully cooperating with the authorities, as due process takes its course.”
The reigning Truck Series champion, Smith has been eyeing opportunities at higher levels including a part-time Cup schedule with Front Row Motorsports and planned starts in the Xfinity Series. After driving a third #36 car for FRM at the Daytona 500 and finishing thirteenth, he ran the first of five races in their #38 at Phoenix and placed thirty-first; the #38 is otherwise mainly driven by Todd Gilliland.
He made his Cup début at Gateway in 2022 as a substitute for the injured Chris Buescher, finishing seventeeth.
In Smith’s main series, he is second in Truck points with two wins at Daytona and COTA. He won four races and the championship the year before. All three of his Truck starts at Martinsville have resulted in top tens, including victory in 2021.
With Ware’s subsitition, both RWR cars are now multi-driver operations, returning to the fully revolving door that they employed until 2021 when Josh Bilicki became the full-timer in the now-shuttered #52.
