When Cody Ware Shocked the Racing World at the Roval in 2020

Cody Ware hasn’t had a lot of moments worth celebrating in his NASCAR career. Cody Ware did have that race at Daytona where, for the only time in his Cup career, he contended for the win after the field was washed away by the rain. But today we’re talking about a forgotten moment!

Roval Rainsanity

The 2020 Roval race is 1 of the most insane races in the history of NASCAR’s secondary series. The rain pouring down on the Charlotte track all day didn’t only get so bad that NASCAR stopped the race for 40 minutes; it also caused a 40-minute delay, however, for both the younger talents that populate NASCAR’s developmental series and even the veterans who were accustomed to racing on dry ovals and had never experienced racing in the rain.

It proved too much to handle for some, and for most, it was one of the biggest challenges they faced in their careers.Want proof? The following drivers (in order) either slid or plowed into the tire barriers, notably on the final set of corners before hitting the oval portion of the track: Kyle Weatherman (twice), Gragson, while leading Ross Chastain had windshield issues.

Austin Hill, Ryan Vargas, Tommy Joe Martins, Matt Mills, and C.J. McLaughlin. Notice the lack of Cody Ware on that list. And that wasn’t even the most insane part of the day; that belonged to the feud between 2 Vegas natives who are now in Cup.It started when Herbst dumped the crap out of Gragson into the turn three barriers. Right after that, he lost the lead when Gragson aquaplaned off turn 5.

So as you might’ve guessed, it didn’t make Gragson very happy. And he made it clear under red he wouldn’t let it go. “Just a racing deal, I guess,” said Gragson on the incident. “I don’t get really mad; I just get even.” And on lap 54, he did pop his own hood up after he slammed into the back of Herbst, destroying his rear. The payback led to a big one that killed Haley’s and Pardus’ cars.

Cody Ware’s Roval Mastery in the Rain

Even though Cody Ware was around all this insanity, something he’s infamously usually the center of, on and off the track. This time, he was keeping calm and staying on track, while everyone else was getting confused by the track, which felt like a slip-and-slide. He got a good view of all the spins as he quickly climbed from his start spot of 38th all the way to the back.

By the middle of the race, he was 19th, with Cody Ware using every bit of passing ability he has to get there and to get further.As he was tied with both Cindric and the aforementioned Gragson for 2nd most green flag passes made by a driver in the top 10 and 4th overall all day with 50 green flag passes made.

His passing times (31) and lack of quality passes (16 total, 32.0%) cost him in driver rating, which was only 73.3, but it didn’t stop Cody Ware from earning a career-best finish. He finished 7th for his 1st career top 10 in both Xfinity and all of NASCAR. His 7th-place finish happened to be the highest position he’d be in all day, and his 38th was the lowest on a perfect day.

Final Thoughts

But how did Cody Ware, of all drivers, master such tricky conditions on a track he’d only raced at once before? What Cody Ware lacked in NASCAR experience, he made up for on road courses. In 2014, Cody Ware competed in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series, winning Rookie of the Year honors.

In 2019, with his father’s team, he won the Asian Le Mans Series championship, earning two wins in his four starts in the series. This was the advantage of most of the fields he used for his career performance. Thanks a bunch for reading!