Andy Lally Joins Rick Ware Racing for Sonoma, Remaining Road Races

Rick Ware Racing made an impactful driver announcement for this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series Toyota / Save Mart 350 and the remaining road courses during the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule on Monday.

The organization has added Andy Lally, who will pilot the No. 15 Ford Mustang this weekend with primary sponsorship from Camping World.

Lally is one of the most respected road racers in the world, as he has amassed five wins in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and he is a three-time IMSA champion. Now, the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series rookie of the year will look to focus on hammering out solid results for the RWR team in his five races with the team.

“This is obviously an incredible opportunity and I am very thankful to Rick, RWR and Camping World for making this all come together in a very short amount of time,” Lally said in a press release. “So many of my chances to race in NASCAR have been one-race deals. With five races now, I get to really focus and embed myself with a team to develop a stronger communication and understanding of each other, as well as learning what the NextGen car likes on road courses.”

On May 24th, Lally tweeted that he had a really cool opportunity to run the road course races in the NASCAR Cup Series, but that he needed a little bit of sponsorship help.

Three days later, Marcus Lemonis responded on Twitter by saying, "I've got you covered."

Two weeks later, Lemonis' company Camping World is on the No. 15 car, and the company will serve as the primary partner for all five of Lally's races with Rick Ware Racing.

“This all came about because I wrote a note across my social media channels explaining I had an opportunity to return to the NASCAR Cup Series. I was thrilled when Marcus Lemonis, CEO and Chairman of Camping World, reached out and committed to all five road course races with Camping World as the primary sponsor. It blew my mind. I can’t thank Marcus and the Camping World family enough.”

While it's a really awesome opportunity for Lally, who has strung together one-off starts left and right throughout his NASCAR career, it also serves as a unique chance for Rick Ware Racing, which has shown improved speed this season.

Now, RWR will have a chance to truly gauge where they stand from a competition standpoint on the road courses.

“When we first talked to Andy about driving a few races with our team, I was very interested based on his impressive road course acumen,” said Rick Ware, team owner. “When Camping World wanted to partner with us for the rest of this year’s road course races, it was an easy decision. Our team is looking forward to getting it started this weekend.”

Lally, 48, has made a total of 40 starts over the course of his career in the NASCAR Cup Series with a best finish of 18th coming at Watkins Glen in 2010, while driving for TRG Motorsports.

The New York native has amassed four top-five finishes and nine top-10s in 23-career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts.

Photo Credit: Nigel Kinrade, NKP, Courtesy of Ford Performance