Rick Ware Racing Competition Director Tommy Baldwin says that NASCAR will change its procedures after Cody Ware's head-on crash into the tire barrier on the streets of Chicago.
"They said it, they're going to implement some different things of some different ways to look at some things now, some safety issues of where the tire barriers are, how they are," Baldwin said during this week's episode of the "Door, Bumper, Clear" podcast.
The Rick Ware Racing driver blew a brake rotor with two laps remaining in last weekend's Cup Series race. His No. 51 Ford Mustang slammed nose-first into a tire barrier at 93 mph. NASCAR did not see the initial hit and ultimately waited to throw the caution flag for more than 30 seconds.
"(NASCAR) were at the shop this morning and inspecting the car and looking all over and seeing what was done," Baldwin said. "That car is junk.
"...Again, you didn't see it, right, but to NASCAR's credit, again, now if they could see it before, they would've threw the caution like immediately if they knew that was going on."
According to Baldwin, NASCAR said that this was the hardest head-on collision of the Gen 7 era. For comparison, Ryan Blaney's crash in the 2023 Daytona summer race was 70 Gs. His crash in the 2024 Bluegreen Vacation Duels was 55 Gs.
Both of Blaney's incidents occurred at a high-speed superspeedway after pushes gone wrong. Ware's crash occurred on a street course after the No. 51 Ford Mustang blew a brake rotor.
NASCAR had cameras in every corner, and it had workers displaying flags for cautions, debris, and other factors that could affect the race. The questions about the procedures surfaced after Ware slammed into the tire barrier immediately in front of these workers.
Did this particular individual have the ability or authority to tell race control that the caution needed to fly immediately due to the severity of the hit? NASCAR said in a statement to media members on Sunday evening that the race director did not see the initial crash.
Instead, they just saw Ware's car in the tire barrier, and they wanted to give him an opportunity to back out of the tires as Kyle Larson did in last season's race.
Speaking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Cup Series Managing Director addressed the late crash and how the series will potentially change some procedures for a return to Chicago, if it happens.
"If we would have had the shot of Cody's impact there, the caution would have come out immediately," Moran said. "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 going to go back and we're gonna review, we're gonna look at it. And if we go back to Chicago, we'll definitely have a different plan."