By David Morgan, Associate Editor
CHICAGO – To throw the caution or not to throw the caution, that is the question.
On the penultimate lap of Sunday’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race, Cody Ware lost the brakes on his No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford and slammed head-on into the tire barrier in Turn 6, burying his car up to the windshield in the vicious impact.
With the leaders having yet taken the white flag and inclement weather bearing down on the Chicago circuit, the caution flag would not fly to assist Ware until leader at the time and eventual race winner Shane van Gisbergen crossed the line to take the white and make it an official race.
As a result, van Gisbergen captured his second NASCAR Cup Series win of the season and completed a clean sweep of the weekend, having also won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race the preceding day.
Caution is out! SHANE VAN GISBERGEN WINS (again) ON THE STREETS OF CHICAGO. pic.twitter.com/UlpeRexCNN
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) July 6, 2025
Caught this video of Cody Ware’s crash. The speed is incredible but glad he was okay. NSFW for language pic.twitter.com/fuZZIqM7xE
— Chris (@MagnusCheeks) July 6, 2025
For upwards of 30 seconds, Ware’s car sat smoking under the tire barrier until he was able to drop the window net and climb out, which then brought out the caution after van Gisbergen had taken the white flag. Ware would be OK after the impact, having been evaluated and released from the Infield Care Center a short time later.
“From start to finish, it was just a constant march forward,” Ware said. “Unfortunately, during one of those restarts, the ‘7’ car got into our left front, picked up a vibration from there and it just progressively got worse and worse until finally, the rotor exploded. Just frustrating. We’ll focus forward at Sonoma and finish what we started here in Chicago.”
Afterwards, van Gisbergen, along with podium finishers Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick, provided their perspective on the delayed yellow and whether it should have come out sooner to force the race into overtime.
“I think Tyler Reddick was the one I was worried about,” said van Gisbergen, regarding the tire advantage that Reddick had as he was charging toward the front in the closing laps. “There was a tire carcass on the exit of 6, and there was a yellow flag, or a blue flag they have here. And when they didn’t put it out for two laps, I figured they were just doing everything they could to get the race finished before the lightning hold.
“I feel like you never know what’s going to happen here with the yellows. And when they left the tire carcass, I thought they’re going to try and finish this race before weather affects it.
“Yeah, when you’re in the lead like that, you’re just begging for the white flag to come out and to get to it. And I came out of the last corner and just saw a heap of smoke straight ahead of Turn 6, and I just held my breath until I crossed the line really.
“When I got the white flag, I come around the next couple of corners and the yellow came out. It was a massive relief, but you never know if they’re going to throw the yellow and try and have an exciting finish.”
Van Gisbergen added that as he came out of Turn 12 on the lap of Ware’s crash, he could see the smoke from the impact ahead of him, which only spurred him on to get back to the white flag with added urgency just in case NASCAR elected to throw the caution sooner.
“Yeah, I shat myself,” he said. “When I came around the corner, he mustn’t have been long in the fence, and there was a whole bunch of smoke.
“And you just panic because it’s different to the lap before. I think, oh, shit, what’s happened there? As soon as you got to the line, you were fine. But that four seconds to the line, I was in full panic mode, trying to get to the line as quick as I could.”
As for his two closest competitors, Gibbs and Reddick, the two drivers had mixed opinions on whether the yellow should have come out prior to the leader taking the white flag.
Gibbs, for example, was all for it.
“I would have been all for that 100 percent, but I think the 51 was like underneath the K-rail over there. So I don’t know. That would have been awesome, though,” said Gibbs.
Reddick, meanwhile, was 50/50 on whether it would have been a good idea to stack the field back up for an overtime restart on the notoriously treacherous track.
“I mean, it’s just a tough situation,” said Reddick. “I can’t see what’s going on over there in Turn 6. NASCAR control has got to decide all that. It’s a tough spot for them to be in because if they throw the yellow flag before we get to the white, it could totally change the outcome for the top 10, the top 20 in the race.
“It’s a tough spot for them to be in for sure, but I think it definitely would have opened up Pandora’s box, if you will, and drivers 10th on back would have been really aggressive for two laps. Also, on our fresher tires we would have been able to be very aggressive as well on those two laps.
“It’s just a tough deal. It’s racing. Sometimes it’s just how it goes.”
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