Despite its best outing of the NASCAR Cup Series 2021 season Sunday (April 11) at Martinsville Speedway, Rick Ware Racing left the track with inner turmoil due to a feud between drivers James Davison and Cody Ware.
RWR placed all four of its cars in the top 30 for the first time since Talladega Superspeedway in the fall of 2020. Davison and Josh Bilicki both posted career-best finishes in 22nd and 23rd, respectively.
But instead of the solid performance catching peoples‘ attention, it was instead the damaged relationship between Davison and Cody Ware, son of team owner Rick Ware, that jumped into the spotlight.
“I understand Cody wasn‘t happy with how hard I was racing him,” Davison told Frontstretch. “I didn‘t feel that I was doing anything wrong. However, that‘s immaterial to what he felt. And so he did what he did and put his bumper on me and turned me around twice. And I had to accept that, again, regardless of what I thought.”
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Davison noted he got a little too heated on the radio because he just wanted Ware to stop roughing up his car.
“Some things were said on the radio, I had to be very strong on the radio to try and put an end to it,” Davison said. “And it appears that it led to the team manager [Ken Evans] telling Cody that if he was to hit me again, that he would get parked by the team.
“To Cody‘s credit, he raced me respectfully [after the team said they‘d park him], and I raced him … I backed off and let him by when he was on some fresher tires, and he waved to me on the exit.
“And with that said, things are not just fine with Cody and I, but that was progress.”
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Following the race, Davison discussed the events of the day with boss Rick Ware.
“Rick just said to me that there‘s times where I can not race as hard,” Davison said. “And he said, ‘Obviously, Cody, taking you out doesn‘t need to be happening either.‘ So like I said, in the end, Cody and I respected each other on the track. It‘s going to take some time for things to just improve on a personal relationship level.
