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NASCAR's Brad Moran admits they made mistake not throwing caution earlier for Cody Ware head-on collision at Chicago

Nick Profile Picby: Nick Geddes07/08/25NickGeddesNews
Cody Ware
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran admitted Tuesday they did not see the initial impact of Cody Ware slamming into the tire barriers on Lap 74 of Sunday’s Chicago Street Race. If NASCAR had seen the footage, the caution would have been thrown immediately, he said.

“We didn’t have the actual footage of the impact of the car getting into the tire barrier. That’s something we’re going to take back and we’re going to look at if we go back to Chicago and we’ll be looking at certain areas of that racetrack and definitely improving that situation,” Moran said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “If we follow what we’ve done at every road and street course, we do have local blue flags at road courses. We tell the spotters what’s out there. 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. We still ended up with seven cautions for 15 laps.

“So, we do our best to try to give the fans as much 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. So, that’s on us. We’re going to review it and we’re going to look at it. If we go back to Chicago, we’ll definitely have a different plan.”

Tommy Baldwin gives health update on Cody Ware

Ware slammed head-on into the tire barriers traveling 93 mph. Immediately after the impact, Ware radioed to his team, “Need help.” NASCAR, however, waited nearly 35 seconds before throwing the caution flag. By then, race leader and eventual winner Shane van Gisbergen had taken the white flag, meaning the next flag would end the race. One fan in attendance caught the impact on video.

Rick Ware Racing competition director Tommy Baldwin said Monday that Cody Ware was a “little sore” after the collision. Ware himself was surprised at how long it took NASCAR to throw the caution.

“Yeah, I mean especially given the speed of how fast we were going into the barrier,” Ware told Frontstretch. “Obviously I’m not going anywhere, there’s not much I can do at that point. But obviously at that point I’m just focused on getting out of the car and getting to a safe spot.”