Hear from Cody Ware after the crash at Texas Motor Speedway
On Sunday, the NASCAR Playoffs rolled into Texas Motor Speedway. The high-speed 1.54-mile track saw a scary single-car incident involving the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing machine.
NASCAR driver Cody Ware got loose in turn four. He slammed the outside wall, nose first. At this point, the wreck was only half over.
The car bounced off the outside wall and was pointed toward the pit lane. Both front wheels were pushed inward and were no longer touching the track. With only the rear wheels on the ground, most of the stopping power was removed.
At the same time, the car was still accelerating due to a hung throttle. As Ware’s machine entered the pit lane, he slammed the inside pit wall.
He impacted the pit stall of Alex Bowman. The No. 88 team had tires sitting on top of the wall which were knocked off in the impact. Lukily, no crew members were injured.
Additionally, the incident could have been much worse. Ware nearly hit an opening to the garage area between the pit stall. He missed that by just a few feet.
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Cody Ware carried off on a stretcher
Ware’s machine came to a stop against the wall. Crews rushed to the scene and helped Ware get out of the car. Once he was out, he was placed on a stretcher and taken to the infield care center.
After a long evaluation, the driver was treated and released. However, he wasn’t cleared without pain.
“We are thankful to the track crew here,” said Robby Benton, team manager of Rick Ware Racing. “We had a bit of a delay going through the normal protocol of x-rays and reviews and making sure there were no fractures. All of that came back clear. He will be on the team plane with us to return to Charlotte tonight and we are happy he is OK.
“No broken bones,” Benton added. “I feel like we will probably follow up just as a precaution. He will see a specialist with Ortho Carolina once we get home. For as hard of a hit as that was, we are thankful it is as clean as it is and he will be okay to go home tonight.”
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Cody Ware details the recovery from the incident
“It was a little rough after the incident on Sunday,” Cody Ware stated via Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
“All of my guys as well as NASCAR medical did a great job taking care of me, treating me and diagnosing all of what was going on. Right now, not dealing with too much pain. Just trying to do some physical therapy and recover.”
“More or less, just dealing with some stretched ligaments. And a lot of bruising and swelling in my foot and ankles. Already been to physical therapy twice.”
“I’m going to get confirmation today [Tuesday] to race Talladega.”
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Cody Ware says he had a stuck throttle
“In three and four, you have some pretty aggressive bumps that can upset the car pretty significantly. Got pretty free on entry. The car just shot up the track and once I hit the bump, that sealed our fait there.”
“That first impact on the outside wall, from what we’ve seen with the car and everybody from NASCAR and the team looking over it, it looks like the throttle got hung after the first hit.”
“I was trying to get the brake pedal down. At that point, with the throttle hung, there wasn’t much I could do to get the car slowed down.”
“I unfortunatly was just a passenger in my own car,” Ware added.
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NASCAR comments on the Texas crash
“You look at that hit that Cody had yesterday, and first and foremost, we’re extremely pleased that he is OK,” NASCAR Elton Sawyer told SiriusXM.
“It was a hard hit, both the first hit into the outside wall in Turn 4 and then as he came across the football field and made contact on the inside pit road. We will look at all of that — A, the car; B, the angle in which he hit from both sides, the outside wall and the inside retaining wall.”
“Looking at that opening there, that he didn’t hit directly on the opening, but he was just a few feet or so ahead of that. So we’ll look at all that, work with our folks at Nebraska on the safety aspects of the facility and see if there’s anything we need to do there, the car, and even our pit crews and how they position themselves for pit stops.”
“More times than not, they’re right there up against the wall, maybe a foot or piece of equipment is sitting on the wall. So all those things we’ll look at today and what adjustments we need to make, and we’ll make them sooner than later as we head into Talladega.”
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Cody Ware crash video
Links
Cody Ware | Texas Motor Speedway | NASCAR
