“This sport has been around for 75 years, and you can’t have designated officials for each turn/area of the track. Wow… be better.” This was just one of the infuriated reactions that fans put up after NASCAR again slipped into controversy. During Sunday’s Chicago Street Race, Shane van Gisbergen showcased his invincible road racing skills. But NASCAR’s call overshadowed a marvelous victory for the Supercars champion.
The Grant Park 165 race was littered with wrecks and mishaps. They began barely 4 laps into the race when Carson Hocevar spun himself out on the narrowest stretch of track, causing a multi-car pileup. As the day went on, only the expert racers could make their way through the chaos safely. Denny Hamlin was among them, finishing 4th, but instead of his top five, a last-lap wreck and a call that came too late are lingering in his mind.
Denny Hamlin calls out NASCAR’s egregious mistake
The Chicago Street Course is like no other circuit on the NASCAR grid. The 12-turn, 2.2-mile circuit made it difficult for TNT Sports cameras to accurately capture every angle of the race. Hence, when Cody Ware slammed into a tire barrier at 93 MPH on lap 74 of the race, NASCAR had a very reasonable excuse. But a fan aptly captured the severity of the crash. Ware’s No. 51 Ford was seen zooming at lightning-fast speed right past the wall and into the tire barrier.
Tremendous backlash erupted in the community after that video surfaced, as NASCAR waited a whole 35 seconds to wave a caution flag. What is more? Ware also sent a feeble plea over the radio: “Need help.” These factors were enough to steal any logic that NASCAR may have had for allowing the race to continue. Shane van Gisbergen caught the white flag. Officials only called a caution after that, and it would have been too late if Cody Ware had incurred a serious injury.
That is why Denny Hamlin unequivocally agreed that it should have been an instant yellow flag on the recent ‘Actions Detrimental’ podcast: “No question about it. That was a massive hit, you have got to throw the caution immediately.” He considered the other factors, like the possibility of rain and lightning: “The fair winner was SVG, and yes, if we get into a green-white-checkered flag, you could have a lot of issues. I think, regardless of what they tell you, rain coming in, the possibility of lightning, all that played into a factor, in my opinion.”
This year was notably the first iteration of the Chicago Street Race that was not marred by rain of any sort, so Hamlin feels NASCAR could have been hesitant to restart the race just before rain arrived. However, Hamlin also added, “They’re saying they didn’t see how big the hit was.” This is an important point, as NASCAR often waits for drivers to drive out of the tire barriers once they hear there’s an incident on a road course, since the speeds are much lower. However, anyone who saw this crash knows that it was not a low-speed crash by any means. Maybe NASCAR missed it and only called a caution after seeing a replay? However, the timing of the caution was eerily close to right after SVG taking the white flag, so Actions Detrimental co-host Jared Allen had a spicy question for Hamlin.
Jared Allen suggested that maybe NASCAR just wanted the race to finish to avoid a weather delay, while being fully aware that there was a wreck in Turn 6. Denny Hamlin denounced this idea immediately: “They will never say that.” This controversy is hardly anything new. Many late-race calls have been criticized earlier. For instance, take a look at last year’s Xfinity race at the Charlotte Roval. Leland Honeyman slammed into the tire barriers, but NASCAR waited until right before Parker Kligerman grabbed the white flag, which is eerily similar and equally bizarre.
After Chicago’s fiasco, Cody Ware thankfully checked out of the in-field care unit healthy and unhurt. However, the Rick Ware Racing driver seemed a bit more concerned about his stats than the chilling wreck.
Banking on a faint glimmer
Well, Cody Ware is not exactly in a bright spot. Driving the No. 51 Ford for Rick Ware Racing, the 30-year-old driver has yet to achieve much in NASCAR. Across his Cup Series career, he has collected only two top-ten finishes and one top-five. This rivals his fortune in other racing disciplines. He competed in the Asian Le Mans Series, where he won the LMP2 Am championship in 2019-2020. Then, Ware also enrolled in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series, where he was the 2014 Rookie of the Year. Ware caught a glimmer of that success at Chicago, where he was slowly building upwards from 35th place and made it almost into the top-15!
That is why the crash on lap 74 felt more like a hindrance to his pace. Cody Ware has picked up just two top-15 finishes in 2025. Hence, losing an opportunity in Chicago did not feel good. He emphasized his race performance rather than the crash post-race: “Super frustrating because it’s not been the best year for us. So being able to show up here, me not having run this race the past two times, and feeling like we had a good pace in the car, heartbreaking. But I think it’s still a day that we can build off of, especially going into another road course race next weekend with Sonoma. So hopefully we can take our notebook from this weekend and build on it for next weekend.”
Despite Cody Ware trying to avoid the topic, the Chicago crash is reigning in the community. Let us see if NASCAR learns a thing or two from this backlash for future races.
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