On the penultimate lap of the Grant Park 165, the #51 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang had a brake failure heading into Turn 6.
NASCAR copped criticism in the wake of the accident, which occurred at close to 100mph (160km/h).
Footage circulated on social media showed the ferocity of the crash and drew a swathe of criticism from pundits and drivers.
Unlike most street circuits around the world, the Chicago course featured very little run-off.
Ware hit a wall of tyres before radioing “need help” to his team.
“Unfortunately, during one of those restarts, the #7 (Justin Haley) car got into our left front,” Ware explained post-race.
Secure your spot today.
“Picked up a vibration from there and it just progressively got worse and worse until finally, the rotor exploded.”
Speaking on the crash, NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran said a review would be conducted.
The time between the crash being shown on the broadcast to the caution coming out was 30 seconds.
“We didn’t have the actual footage of the impact of the car getting into the tire barrier,” ” Moran told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“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.
Caught this video of Cody Ware’s crash. The speed is incredible but glad he was okay. NSFW for language pic.twitter.com/fuZZIqM7xE
— Chris (@MagnusCheeks) July 6, 2025
The accident itself was not shown initially on the broadcast. Eventual race winner Shane van Gisbergen took the white flag before the caution was eventually waved.
“If we would have had the shot of Cody’s impact there, the caution would have come out immediately,” said Moran.
“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.”
There were several instances during the race where drivers spun or crashed and NASCAR let them try to get going before throwing the caution.
Josh Berry was among those to suffer significant front-end damage in a crash at Turn 7. He was allowed to three-point-turn his way out of tyre barrier before the caution eventually came out.
A video posted to the official NASCAR social media accounts showed the race was being officiated remotely.
Cup Series legend Denny Hamlin criticised officials for not throwing the caution sooner for several incidents, but particularly Ware’s.
“I would like to know how many people they have watching the corners. If you’ve got cameras on all corners, which they say they do, then you’ve got to have a person or a camera,” Hamlin said on Actions Detrimental.
“I’m sorry, you can’t look at multiple monitors and think that you’re catching it all. That’s not realistic, but I don’t know if they’re willing to put the manpower into that.
“I don’t know whether they’re willing to spend the money to do that because obviously they did this to save money in the long run.
“You can’t keep saying ‘We didn’t see it’. If you remember, they didn’t see Parker Kliggerman at the ROVAL. They didn’t see the guy in the tyre barriers.
“It’s too much here. We’re doing it too often. They saw Josh Berry, I would assume, they saw him sitting there for quite some time. Again, this was not a good officiated race.”
From Cody Ware’s onboard. He’d apparently been saying the right front had been locking up but didn’t confirm if it was a tire or brake failure before getting out of the car.
Tough ending to what had been a great run for him. https://t.co/YgTC90rWZt pic.twitter.com/5BleyEWnsq
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) July 6, 2025
NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr offered similar criticism.
“My problem is we absolutely should have known the minute he hit that wall that he hit it at 100mph and it’s violent and scary and it was a matter of how quick can that person get on the button to the tower and say ‘hard wreck’,” he reasoned.
“Then that quickly gives them the opportunity to throw the yellow, the yellow comes out, we get to him and if we’ve got to have a green-white-chequered we’ve got to have a green-white-chequered.”
Despite rain in the immediate aftermath of the race finishing, Earnhardt Jr. said the inclement conditions wouldn’t have impacted whether NASCAR threw the caution or not.
“I guess there’s this conversation that NASCAR didn’t want to throw it because there was weather coming and they didn’t want the race ruined. I don’t believe that,” he said.
“NASCAR is not thinking of all those variables. They’re just trying to let the race finish as they would any other way.”
The Cup Series continues its season at Sonoma for the Toyota Save Mart 350, which takes place on Monday, July 14 at 5:30am AEST.
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