Cody Ware slammed the wall on the final lap of the NASCAR race in Chicago and multiple pieces of safety equipment were broken
On Sunday, NASCAR raced on the streets of Downtown Chicago. A crash on the final lap brought out a caution and ended the race.
The cause of the crash appears to be a part failure in a high-speed area of the track. He was unable to slow down for the corner ahead.
Ware hit the wall head-on near 100mph. The impact was great enough to break multiple pieces of safety equipment inside the car.
A fan captured the most shocking video of the crash. That video is posted below.
However, there was a delay in the time it took to throw the caution. NASCAR said they didn’t know how bad the crash was as they didn’t have video of it. They are looking to address that going forward.
Rick Ware Racing is set to be sold to former NASCAR team owner
Cody Ware comments on the crash
“Pretty much everything from the interior of the car, as well as my gear, was killed on that impact,” Ware told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“So, thankfully, getting a new helmet, a new HANS, you know, there was a crack in the EPS foam inside the helmet, the HANS device was cracked, steering wheel, you know, got bent up pretty good as well.”
“So, I think it’s just a testimony to all the safety people that are selling us helmets and HANS, as well as steering wheels from Max Papis. And then my interior guys and all the guys at RWR who are building these race cars and keeping them safe.”
NASCAR comments
“We didn’t have the actual footage of the impact of the car getting into the tire barrier,” Brad Moran stated earlier this week.
“That’s something we’re gonna take back and we’re gonna look at it. If we go back to Chicago, we’ll be looking at certain areas of that race track and definitely improving that situation.”
“If they’re in the racing line, it changes the thought process. If they’re out of the racing line, we give them time, which obviously we did throughout the day.”
“I still think we ended up with seven cautions for 15 laps so we do our best to give the fans as much of that time as we can to get green flag racing.”
“However, if we would have had the shot of Cody’s impact there, the caution would have come out immediately. But it was thrown immediately when he dropped his window net.”
“We give them the opportunity to pull out, but if we would have had that first shot, we would have known that car wasn’t pulling out. That’s on us, we’re gonna go back, we’re gonna review it, and if we go back to Chicago, we’ll definitely have a different plan.”
Watch the NASCAR crash video below.
Chicago Results: July 6, 2025 (NASCAR)
Cody Ware Crash Video
Rick Ware Racing is set to be sold to former NASCAR team owner
