NASCAR star reveals 'longest seconds of my life' after huge Cup Series wreck

Cody Ware has hailed the advances in NASCAR Cup Series car safety in the years since the Next Gen car was introduced, after his huge wreck at Chicago.

A brake rotor blew out on Ware's car in the final laps of the street race, sending him straight-on into a tyre barrier at over 90mph on impact, with the Rick Ware Racing driver calling the time between the rotor blowing and the impact 'the longest five seconds of my life'.

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The reaction to Ware's wreck has been used as a stick to beat NASCAR with since Sunday afternoon in the Windy City, but the 29-year-old has now revealed the results of the impact and how much he feels the Next Gen car has improved from its first year of running in 2022 (when he suffered an impact fracture and torn ligaments in his right foot) to now.

New safety measures have been mandated during every full year of the Next Gen car so far, and Ware told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio this week that he believes they've made a tangible difference.

Ware: All I had in my mind was Texas wreck

Detailing the parts written off by the wreck, he admitted: "Pretty much everything from the interior of the car, as well as my gear, was killed on impact. Thankfully getting a new helmet and a new HANS (device), there was a crack in the EPS inside the helmet HANS device.

"Steering wheel got bent up pretty good as well, I think it's just a testimony to all the safety people that are selling us helmets and HANSes, as well as the steering wheels from Max Papis [Innovations]. My interior guys and all the RWR guys that are building these race cars and keeping them safe.

"Unfortunately this isn't my first time getting into a really gnarly wreck in the Next Gen car. I look back at 2022 and that's all that I had in my mind for those five seconds, and it felt like the longest five seconds of my life, was when I took that frontal impact in the Next Gen car in 2022 at Texas.

"That was before a lot of the updates and the front clip had been made to make sure that the crush zones more significant, and the chassis would definitely deform a lot more on those impacts. I think it's a testimony to the word that's been 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 when I broke my foot at Texas.

"I think the progress with the safety with the Next Gen cars has come a long way, obviously I don't want to be the test dummy for that but I'm thankful to see a dramatic difference between what I felt with the frontal impact at Texas versus what I felt on Sunday at Chicago."

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