Rick Ware Racing will compete in the 2026 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series, fielding two sim racers in each event on the 13-race schedule that begins May 19.
Garrett Manes will drive the No. 51 Chevrolet for RWR and Daniel Faulkingham will drive the team’s No. 55 Chevrolet in the series’ 17th season. They are among 40 of the best sim racers competing in the premier sim racing series, and all are vying for their share of the $500,000 purse, with the champion earning an impressive $100,000.
“What stands out to me about sim racing is how serious it is. People may see it as a game, but at this level, it’s not. The preparation, the attention to detail and the competition are all real,” said Rick Ware, team owner.
“We’ve built Rick Ware Racing by competing in a lot of different forms of motorsports, and joining the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series felt like a natural fit for us. We’ve got two talented drivers in Garrett and Daniel, and we’re looking forward to seeing what they can do.”
Manes is an accomplished sim racer with more than 2,750 career victories. The 25-year-old from Powhatan, Virginia, also races in the real world, running part-time in Toyota GR Cup North America. Manes previously competed in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series from 2021 through 2024. His full-time job is with Sim Seats, where he builds racing simulators.
Faulkingham returns for his fourth straight season in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series. Earlier this year in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Qualifying Series, Faulkingham won the season-opening Top Split race at Daytona International Speedway, leading 64 of the race’s 80 laps. The 24-year-old from Jonesport, Maine, scored his first career eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series win in 2024 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, holding off series champion Steven Wilson. Faulkingham is a student at the University of Maine at Machias, where he is studying business management.
Live broadcasts of eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Championship Series races are available on iRacing’s Twitch, YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as eNASCAR.com.
— Rick Ware Racing —