Rick Ware Racing has a long list of drivers who have been behind the wheel of its No. 51 and No. 15 NASCAR Cup cars.
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2024 is a new beginning for the two-car team. During the final months of the 2023 season, Justin Haley signed a multi-year deal with the team to become the face of the organization moving forward. Rick Ware Racing has now made it official that Haley will pilot the No. 51 car this season.
Haley has plenty of talent; and given that RWR has been one of the backmarker teams of the sport, his move from Kaulig Racing had long been questioned. But it looks as if Haley has plenty of confidence heading into the 2024 season.
He will have a young and experienced teammate alongside him. Rick Ware Racing has filled out its No. 15 Ford for 25 race dates with Kaz Grala behind the wheel of the second car.
Haley responded to Grala's announcement post on X that he was joining the team, welcoming his former teammate in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Welcome to the RWR team, time to get to work! 😁 https://t.co/166m1LaOSM
— Justin Haley (@Justin_Haley_) January 17, 2024
This is the biggest Cup opportunity the 25-year-old Grala has gotten, as he had made a handful of Cup starts over the past several years. They included a seventh-place finish in his Cup debut at the Daytona Road Course in 2020. He spent 2023 driving full time for Sam Hunt Racing in the Xfinity Series.
Team owner Rick Ware is happy to have Grala aboard alongside Haley, and he talked about Grala's talent with speedsport.com.
"Kaz Grala is a talented and tenacious driver who brings a lot to our race team," Ware said. "He has an incredible work ethic and leverages every opportunity to its full potential. He's an asset inside and outside of the car who will help make our program better."
Grala and Haley have had similar groundbreaking performances in the NASCAR world. Grala won the 2017 season-opening Truck race at Daytona when he was just 18 years old, making him the youngest to ever win at the historic track.
As for Haley, he has won at all three levels of NASCAR, including a shocking Cup win in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona in 2019 when he was just 20 years old.
The proven ability of both drivers to deliver quickly was a big reason Ware hired them.
"Kaz is another crucial piece of our organization and for the same reasons we brought Justin Haley on board, we feel Kaz can also contribute immediately," Ware said. "Kaz wants to make a difference and, above all, he wants to perform. That's the kind of driver and determination all of us have at RWR."
Rick Ware Racing has been part of the NASCAR Cup Series in some way, shape or form since 1998. But it didn't become a full-time operation until 2017, although it took until 2019 to finally gain a charter. It hasn't had drivers as talented as Grala or Haley until this point.
So the future seems bright for a team that has long been the laughingstock of the Cup Series. Time will tell if it all pays off for Grala and Haley.
