With involvement in seven different racing series that touch 26 states and seven countries, the sun never sets at Rick Ware Racing (RWR).
Rick Ware’s eponymous team competes on a world tour, fielding entries in the NASCAR Cup Series, NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, HOT ROD Drag Week, Progressive American Flat Track (AFT), FIM World Supercross Championship, zMAX CARS Tour and eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series. It’s a cornucopia of motorsports that covers ovals, road courses, dragstrips, dirt tracks, supercross tracks and sim speedways, involves racecars and motorcycles, and spans multiple genres, from grassroots to racing’s pinnacle.
“There’s a business reason we’re involved in so many different forms of motorsports,” said Ware, who formed RWR in 1995. “Our partners don’t just get one race team or one series. They get a platform that reaches different audiences in different markets throughout the year. That gives them more opportunities to engage customers, entertain guests and maximize their investment.”
RWR’s international footprint begins Aug. 8 with the World Supercross season opener at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The global dirt-bike racing series hopscotches across five continents and features top riders competing on supercross-style circuits inside the stadiums of major cities. World Supercross’ six-event schedule continues into mid-December, giving RWR a competitive presence every month of the year except January.
“Our schedule doesn’t have much of an offseason, and that’s by design,” Ware said. “Every week, we’re racing somewhere in the world, and that creates tremendous value for partners like Super.com and Rocket Doctor. Whether we’re at a NASCAR race, an NHRA event, a dirt track for AFT, inside a stadium for World Supercross or even online through eNASCAR, our partners have a consistent presence in front of passionate fans all year long.”
RWR’s eclectic lineup deserves an eclectic ambassador. Enter Riki Rachtman. The former MTV host is best known for fronting Headbangers Ball from 1990 to 1995 before combining his passions for heavy metal, hard rock and motorsports as host of the “Racing Rocks” radio show for nearly 20 years. Today, Rachtman traverses the United States on his one-man show, “One Foot in the Gutter,” where in addition to his true rock-and-roll tales, redemption stories and behind-the-curtain stories from the music scene of the ‘80s and ‘90s, he mixes in racing, specifically from the array of RWR personalities.
“I’ve spent my life chasing great stories, whether it was backstage at rock clubs, behind the microphone or at racetracks, and Rick Ware Racing has stories everywhere you look,” said Rachtman, who co-founded the legendary 1980s Cathouse Hollywood nightclub on Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip with Faster Pussycat frontman Taime Downe. “RWR isn’t a team that does just one thing. One weekend it’s NASCAR, the next it’s NHRA, then motorcycles, drag cars or sim racing and, sometimes, they’re all competing on the same weekend. I get to pull back the curtain, introduce people to the personalities behind it all, and show fans why this organization is unlike anything else in motorsports.”
Rachtman’s tour dates are available on his website at CathouseHollywood.com, and the RWR driver and rider lineup that will be peppered into his monologues includes:
- NASCAR Cup Series driver Cody Ware: Winner of the 2019-2020 LMP2 championship in the Asian Le Mans Series with co-driver Gustas Grinbergas. In a prelude to that title, he was the 2014 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Rookie of the Year. In January 2024 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, he piloted a Ligier JS P320 to a podium finish in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 class. He has also competed in the NTT IndyCar Series where he scored a top-20 finish in his debut on June 20, 2021, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
- NHRA Top Fuel driver Clay Millican: The winningest driver in IHRA history and a six-time IHRA champion. Millican has been with RWR throughout its entire NHRA tenure. He is a seven-time NHRA Top Fuel event winner and has delivered all five of RWR’s NHRA Top Fuel victories – the 2023 Route 66 Nationals May 21 at Route 66 Raceway in Elwood, Illinois, the 2023 Mile High Nationals July 16 at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado, the 2023 Midwest Nationals Oct. 1 at World Wide Technology Raceway, the 2024 U.S. Nationals Sept. 2 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, and the 2025 NHRA Winternationals March 30 at In-N-Out Pomona (Calif.) Dragstrip.
- NHRA Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher: An eight-time NHRA Top Fuel champion whose 88 career wins make Schumacher the winningest Top Fuel driver in series history. He has 22 more wins than his nearest pursuer, NHRA Top Fuel driver Antron Brown, and Schumacher’s eight championships long ago surpassed Hall of Famer Joe Amato’s career total of five NHRA Top Fuel titles. In 2025, Schumacher was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
- AFT SuperTwins rider Briar Bauman: A two-time SuperTwins champion who has earned 17 of his 39 career SuperTwins victories since joining RWR in 2023. Bauman has already won five times in 2026.
- WSX SX1 (450cc class) rider Cooper Webb: An extremely decorated rider with three Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX titles and 31 career 450SX wins. Twice, Webb finished runner-up in the 450SX championship chase. He was third two other times, including this year, when he finished just 34 points behind champion Ken Roczen. This will be his first World Supercross season.
- WSX SX1 (450cc class) rider Justin Hill: Was the 2017 Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX West champion. Although new to RWR, 2026 marks Hill’s third World Supercross season.
- WSX SX2 (250cc class) rider Devin Simonson: Has raced professionally since 2021 and is widely considered a leader in the current wave of American talent competing globally. Simonson made his World Supercross debut in 2025.
- WSX SX2 (250cc class) rider Max Anstie: A recent addition to RWR after replacing the injured Coty Schock. It’s a significant pickup for the team, as Anstie is the two-time and reigning WSX SX2 champion. The Englishman won his first title in 2023 and regained the crown last season. Anstie began racing professionally in 2009, carrying on his family’s legacy in motorcycle racing as his father, Mervyn, was a British Motocross champion and World Motocross GP rider.
- CARS Tour driver Carson Ware: In his first-ever Tour Type Modified start at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the fourth-generation racer won. Since that 2019 victory, Carson Ware has run a collection of races across the ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, while also campaigning Late Models. In fact, he played a key role in securing the 2025 CARS Tour Pro Late Model owners’ championship for RWR, winning May 3 at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina.
- Late Model Stock driver Michael Bumgarner: Drives the No. 51 Chevrolet in a collection of Late Model Stock events for RWR. His 15-race schedule in 2026 features select CARS Tour races, the Virginia Late Model Triple Crown, and weekly events at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway, which includes many of the track’s signature events, notably the Aug. 1 Jack Ingram Memorial, the Sept. 5 Bobby Isaac Memorial and the Nov. 7 Fall Brawl. Bumgarner is the two-time and reigning track champion in the Late Model Stock division at Hickory. He won 10 races in 2024 and more than doubled that total in 2025, scoring 22 victories, a tally that included wins in the Bobby Isaac Memorial and Fall Brawl.
This story was originally published on July 9, 2026. 
The post Rick Ware Racing’s ‘World Tour’: Team Touches 26 States, Seven Countries By Competing In 125 Races Across Seven Different Series first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
