To no surprise, the head-on impact sustained by Cody Ware in the NASCAR Cup Series street course race in Chicago was the hardest in the history of this current generation racing platform.
“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.”
One of the biggest safety development challenges of the NextGen car has concerned the rigidity of the front and rear clips that both needed softening after the 2022 season. One such crash was Ware at Texas in 2022.
You know, unfortunately, this isn’t my first time getting into a gnarly wreck in the NextGen car,” Ware said. “I look back at 2022, and that’s all I had in my mind for those five seconds, it felt like the longest five seconds of my life. You know, when I took that frontal impact in the NextGen car back in 2022 at Texas, that was before a lot of updates in the front clip had been made to make sure that the crush zones were more significant and the chassis would definitely deform a lot more on those impacts.
“So, I just think that’s a testimony to the work that was done between then and now. Because I was pretty worried that whole way to the wall that it was going to be another injury-inducing incident like I had where I broke my foot at Texas. So, I think the progress with the safety of the Next Gen cars has definitely come a long way. Obviously, I don’t want to be the test dummy for that, but thankful to see a dramatic difference in what I felt with the frontal impact at Texas versus what I felt on Sunday in Chicago.”
On Sunday in Chicago, Ware lost a brake rotor and was unable to slow hos car down at over 90 miles per hour approaching a tire barrier. Race control waited over 30 seconds to call a caution and NASCAR later admitted that it was a mistake born from a less than adequate communication process at the Grant Park street circuit.
