During the last 10 laps of the NASCARCup Series race at Watkins Glen, Cody Ware wrecked hard into a wall. He spun out and his left rear slammed against the barrier before he came to a stop. Denny Hamlin believes race control missed an obvious caution.
On the “Actions Detrimental” podcast, Denny Hamlin talked about the issue with Cody Ware. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened involving Ware, either. He was buried in a tire barrier at the Chicago Street Race after hitting a tire barrier going 93 MPH. NASCAR was heavily criticized at the time for not throwing the caution.
Fan images on social media showed that Ware had damaged the barrier wall with his wreck. Yet, it was let untouched for 9 more laps in the race, until Shane van Gisbergen had won. Hamlin believes that was unacceptable from NASCAR.
Cody Ware races in the No. 51 Jacob Companies Chevy at Watkins Glen. (Photo by Orry Perce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“Yeah, I mean, [NASCAR] didn’t follow a few wrecks that happened, that’s for sure,” Hamlin said to his cohost. “But NASCAR has to get better with that. Like, I’ve seen their control center at their production studio. There’s absolutely no excuse to not you know, have cameras pointing in every direction of this racetrack for you not to see Cody Ware destroyed in that final corner. Holy cow, man. That’s, they need to say something about that. Not just, ‘We’ll look at it. We’re always looking to improve.’ That’s old news. Take some accountability on this one. This is not acceptable.”
Denny Hamlin addressed how NASCAR should handle the situation. He talked about the camera angles that the production center has access to. He would like to see more people focusing on watching the track for these incidents so cautions can be called when needed.
“There has to be multiple, it can’t be one person, I’m sorry you can’t look at 24 monitors at one time,” Hamlin continued. “There has to be multiple people looking for dramatic events that’s going on that could be a hazard, call it in, and then it’s got to call to the next guy and then to the next guy. But you can’t just like, ‘Oh we didn’t, we didn’t see that.'”
Before moving on to another topic, Hamlin was told when the wreck happened. There was about 10 to go and the leaders were crossing the line to make it 9 to go as the wreck happened. That shocked Hamlin even more, and he even called out his nemesis, NASCAR Managing Director of Race Communications and host of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, Mike Forde.
“Wow. Wow. Alright, I don’t know,” Hamlin said. “I’m sure Mike Forde will come up with some statement on it.”
Is Denny Hamlin right? The replay of the Cody Ware wreck sure did look rough. That’s not to mention the spins, wrecks, and incidents that the Fox broadcast missed and didn’t show fans in the race.
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on May 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
