NASCAR suspends Cup Series driver Cody Ware after arrest for felony assault

NASCAR suspended Cup Series driver Cody Ware on Monday after Ware was arrested for felony assault in North Carolina.

Ware was arrested Monday by the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office and charged with felony assault by strangulation and a misdemeanor count of assault on a female. Ware missed Sunday night’s dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway for what his Rick Ware Racing team said was a “personal matter" and was suspended shortly after the news of his arrest became public.

Ware, 27, made his Cup Series debut in 2017 and has run a majority of races on the Cup schedule in each of the past two seasons. He drives for his father’s backmarker team and has an average finish outside the top 30 in 97 career starts. Ware’s only top 10 came in the crash-filled 2022 summer race at Daytona when he finished sixth.

The 2022 season was Ware’s best season in NASCAR. He had an average finish of 28th and was set to run all 36 races for the first time until he was injured in a crash at Texas Motor Speedway. Ware suffered an ankle injury when his car went head-on into the outside wall and then hit the inside pit road wall after the throttle got stuck because of the damage from the first hit.

Ware has also made starts in NASCAR’s Xfinity and Truck Series and dabbled in the IndyCar Series in 2021. He made three IndyCar starts two seasons ago with a best finish of 19th in his series debut at Road America.