Can an oval racetrack behave like a road course? It can when you’re talking about World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, site of Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 NASCAR Cup Series race.

Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Parts Plus Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing, feels the 1.25-mile oval in Madison, Illinois, located on the east side of the Mississippi River in the shadow of The Gateway Arch, has some characteristics of a road course.

The egg-shaped layout forces drivers to navigate two very different corners – a tight radius between turns one and two that is banked at 11 degrees, and then a long, sweeping, flat arch through turns three and four banked at just 9 degrees. These two corners are separated by long straightaways, the frontstretch at 1,922 feet and the backstretch at 1,976 feet.

“Gateway is like a road course on an oval,” said Ware, referring to the track’s original name. “You have a lot of downshifting going on. You’re in fifth gear down the frontstretch and turn one is a really heavy braking zone. You have banking there, but it’s still a very tight corner. So, you’re downshifting from fifth to third, which is something we don’t do anywhere else, at least on an oval. At Martinsville, we’re going between fourth and third (gear), and at Pocono, we’re going between fifth and fourth. To be downshifting twice into a corner on an oval is definitely unique.”

With 133 Cup Series starts under his belt, Ware is very accustomed to the oval-centric world of NASCAR. But his background reveals a significant amount of road-course experience. Ware won the 2019-2020 LMP2 championship in the Asian Le Mans Series with co-driver Gustas Grinbergas. In a prelude to that title, Ware was the 2014 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Rookie of the Year. In January 2024 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Ware piloted a Ligier JS P320 to a podium finish in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 class.

“Road racing is where I did a lot of my growing up and learning how to race,” Ware said. “There was a lot of back and forth between stock cars and GT cars and sportscars over the years as I found my place in NASCAR.”

World Wide Technology Raceway found its place on the Cup Series schedule in 2022. Sunday’s 240-lap race will mark the fourth Cup Series race held at the facility.

“You need to find a rhythm at Gateway and then stay in that rhythm,” Ware said. “Being consistent is key. You’re doing two wildly different things on each side of the racetrack because the corners are so different. You can’t attack each end of the racetrack the same way. It’s a one-of-a-kind place.”

Ware’s track attack begins Saturday with practice at 3:30 p.m. CDT/4:30 p.m. EDT followed by qualifying at 4:40 p.m. CDT/5:40 p.m. EDT. TruTV and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide live coverage of both. The Enjoy Illinois 300 goes green on Sunday at 2 p.m. CDT/3 p.m. EDT with flag-to-flag coverage delivered by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

RWR PR