Ware says interior of his car was 'killed' after vicious crash

NASCAR Cup Series driver Cody Ware. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Cody Ware says interior of his car was 'killed' after vicious Chicago crash

By Samuel Stubbs | Last updated Jul 10, 2025 8:59 PM ET

NASCAR officiating may have been the main talking point following Cody Ware's scary crash at the end of the Grant Park 165 on Sunday, but the damage done to Ware's No. 51 Ford was equally as interesting.

The crash, which happened when Ware suffered a brake rotor failure and went into a tire barrier at approximately 93 mph, was the biggest frontal impact recorded since the advent of NASCAR's Next-Gen car in 2022.

On Thursday, Ware shared his perspective of the incident on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

"Pretty much everything from the interior of the car, as well as my gear, was killed on that impact," Ware said. "Thankfully, (I'm) getting a new helmet, a new HANS (device). (The) HANS device was cracked, my steering wheel got bent up pretty good as well."

Cody Ware details the impact of his crash at @NASCARChicago and commends the safety advancements of the Gen 7 car.

"That's a testimony to the work that was done between then and now, because I was pretty worried the whole way to the wall."

More → https://t.co/MKhd9eLpQA pic.twitter.com/z37EBdPhfo
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) July 10, 2025

"Unfortunately, this isn't my first time getting involved in a really gnarly wreck in the Next-Gen car," Ware continued. "I look back to 2022, and that's all I had in my mind for those five seconds — it felt like the longest five seconds of my life — was when I took that frontal impact in the Next-Gen car in 2022 at Texas."

Thankfully, the safety of NASCAR's seventh-generation car has come a long way since Ware's crash at Texas three years ago. Ware is healthy and will race this weekend at Sonoma Raceway.

Samuel Stubbs

Hailing from the same neck of the woods as NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, Samuel has been covering NASCAR for Yardbarker since February 2024. He has been a member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) since October of 2024. When he’s not writing about racing, Samuel covers Arkansas Razorback basketball for Yardbarker

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