NASCAR Ford Team Rick Ware Racing Taps Tim Brown For Cup Debut

December 18, 2024 10:23 am

Rick Ware Racing (RWR) announced that a new driver will take the wheel of the No. 15 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Bowman Gray Stadium – and he’s no stranger to the track. Tim Brown, Bowman Gray’s all-time wins leader, will drive the No. 15 Mustang in his Cup Series debut at the preseason Clash on February 2^nd, 2025.

Brown holds the track record at Bowman Gray, with 12 titles in the track’s featured Modified Division. He scored his 100^th feature victory in 2023, and currently boasts 101 wins at the track, along with 146 pole positions. Brown also has a single NASCAR national series start when he drove a Chevy race truck to a 27^th-place finish at Martinsville during the 2009 season.

“I’ve worked my whole life to try to be a Cup driver,” Brown said in a team release. “I’m good with working on race cars for a living because it’s still a pretty cool gig, but I always wanted to drive for a living. For [RWR owner] Rick Ware and everybody involved here at RWR to give me the chance to go run a Cup race is so humbling and so heartwarming. It’s really cool.”

Brown and the No. 15 NASCAR Ford Mustang are not guaranteed a spot in the season-opening Clash, which is a non-point-paying exhibition race that precedes the Daytona 500, meaning the team will make an attempt at qualifying but may not make it in. The forthcoming race will be the first time the NASCAR Cup Series has competed at Bowman Gray since 1971.

“The guys who race these Cup cars today are elite,” Brown said. “They’re the best drivers in the world, and I’m not even going to put myself in that same category. I’m just going to do the best I can. I want to climb out of that thing at the end of the Clash and see my son and our family with big smiles on their faces and knowing that we did the best we could because, I promise you, I’m going to give it 110 percent.”

At this time, RWR has not indicated who will drive its NASCAR Ford entries for 2025. Last season, Corey LaJoie replaced Justin Haley for the final four races, but RWR has not stated if it will continue its relationship with him next season.