Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Cody Ware loses wheel late at Sonoma, sets up late-race restart

Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Jonathan Howard | Last updated Jul 13, 2025 8:39 PM ET

The announcer’s curse. Just as Cody Ware was mentioned on the TNT NASCAR broadcast, his right rear wheel popped off his car. Last week, Ware was the story after slamming the tire barrier at Chicago as officials held onto the caution flag for over half a minute.

Cody Ware was having a decent day today. He had put himself in a position to finish with a clean car. For this Rick Ware Racing team, that’s all they can hope for at these road courses. Especially after last week.

Ware was being talked about by the broadcast team. Then, his car wiggled and the wheel popped off. There will be just over 10 laps to go when this race goes green again.

A caution that could change everything! @shanevg97's lead is wiped away late because of this wheel from the No. 51! pic.twitter.com/wLF3MVqgVy
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 13, 2025

Was Cody Ware in contention for a great finish? No. But this was not what this team wanted as the race started to come to a close. It sent the race into a caution which only led to more issues on the track.

The driver who didn’t want to see this caution was Shane van Gisbergen. He had built up leads multiple times just to see them disappear again. SVG was so quick that he cut Stage 2 short and still won the stage. Seriously. You can’t make that kind of speed up.

That lead he had built was taken away by the Cody Ware caution. Did it matter? Not really.

Cody Ware caution can’t shake Shane van Gisbergen

In the Next Gen era, we have seen F1 champions try the Cup Series. We have seen talent from Supercars, IndyCar, endurance racing, and more. None of them have been as fast and as far ahead of the competition as Shane van Gisbergen.

Three wins tie him with Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell for the most on the year. Today was a butt-whooping and sent a message to the rest of the field – if they want to compete with SVG on the road, they need to step up their game.

Cody Ware caused a late caution, didn’t matter. Then Noah Gragson got wrecked, caused a restart. No issues. Finally, with a few laps left, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrecked. Still, no problems for Shane van Gisbergen.

There were three restarts in the last 15 laps of the race. No one had an answer for SVG. It was an elite performance.

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: