Cody Ware's crash on Sunday, which didn't trigger a caution, has started a debate about the Next Gen's safety in NASCAR. As fans and experts question the governing body, Kurt Busch has joined the chorus.

"I’ve seen where they dispatch ambulances at Talladega for someone just spinning out and not hitting anything. Then I’ve seen people clobber the wall and we stay green,” Busch explained as he shed light on the incident, raising fresh safety concerns.

The NASCAR Next Gen cars were introduced in 2022 to promote safer and more wheel-to-wheel racing. However, the new car came under several safety risks, as the chassis, which is stiffer than the usual ones, transfers too much crash energy to the drivers.

As a result, there have been multiple instances of concussions in them. While the 2023 updates improved the risk of rear impacts, the concern remains regarding airborne flips, and violent handling characteristics.

“These cars have black boxes in them, and they need to trigger a yellow when a car has a 15G impact or 20—we all need to come up with that number,” Busch further added.

In Ware's case, it was a hard crash where he slammed the barrier near pit road with nine laps to go. In response, NASCAR vice president of racing communications Mike Forde explained the reason why a caution was not given.

“Tim Bermann clicks over to Turn 6, and as he flips over, he sees the 51 rolling off, and the turn spotter radios the track is clear, so there’s no debris,” Forde said.

Nonetheless, after this incident, NASCAR is now developing a system to review the crash data to assist calling out cautions better.

Notably, Kurt Busch was involved in a wreck in 2022 while driving the 23XI Racing Next Gen car, and it was so critical, that it turned out to be a career-ending one.

When Kurt Busch opened up about a career-ending crash

In July 2022, Kurt Busch was racing at Pocono Raceway in the qualifying event of the race weekend. However, his outing came to a sudden halt as Busch suffered a crash in Turn 3.

"And so when I took that hit, when I backed in, the car then swung around and hit the right front. And I don’t remember the car hitting the right front. I was in outer space, like everything’s black and white," Busch said about the crash.

The wreck was so impactful and dangerous that reports suggest that Busch hit the wall at 30G force, turned around, and hit the front at 18G. The accident sidelined him from racing, and finally after at the end of that year, he retired from NASCAR.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason