Cody Ware suffered a frightening crash in last Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway. On lap 168, Ware lost control of his No. 51 Ford in Turn 3 and smacked the Turn 4 SAFER barrier with extreme impact. The contact with the wall sent his car traveling at a high rate of speed still towards the pits.

Ware said his throttle was stuck as he was hurting and trying to find a way to slow the car before more damage was done. He made heavy impact with the inside pit wall as a result.

“I think we just got pretty free on entry on one of the times into Turn 3 and 4, and the car just kind of shot up the track, and I think once I hit the bump, it kind of sealed our fate there,” he said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday.

“That first impact on the outside wall, from what we’ve seen with the car and everybody from NASCAR (and) the team looking over it, it looks like the throttle got hung after the first hit, and so once we were making our way… obviously (I was) trying to get the car stopped, trying to get the brake pedal down. But at that point with the throttle hung, there wasn’t much I could do to get the car slowed down, and unfortunately was a passenger of my own car heading toward the pit road wall.

“Up until the last 50 feet or so, it looked like I was pretty much headed toward that corner there, but at the end of the day, obviously, the wheel was already bent in from the right front. It was caved into the firewall after the first impact, so I didn’t have any way to steer and maneuver the car. Obviously, I tried to do that, but wasn’t able to. Thankfully, once I came out of the grass and onto pit road itself, the car corrected to the right a little bit, and I was able to thankfully avoid the corner of the pit road entry/exit.

“Obviously, it could have been a lot worse, but all in all, to walk away just with some of the foot and ankle pain and in a position where I probably won’t have to miss Talladega, I think that things could have been a lot worse for sure.”

Ware climbed out of his car under his own power but quickly dropped to the ground in pain. He was transported to the infield care center before being released a little while later.

“It was a little rough after the incident on Sunday, but I had a great group of guys around me,” he says. My team, as well as NASCAR medical, did a good job of taking care of me, treating me, and diagnosing what all was going on.”

Ware was later cleared to return to his seat for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN) at Talladega.

“Right now, not dealing with too much pain, just trying to do some physical therapy and recover,” he continued. “More or less just dealing with some stretched ligaments and a lot of bruising and swelling in my foot and ankle.

“But already been to physical therapy twice and going to get the final approval today to get confirmation to race at Talladega. And all in all, I think we’re going to be heading in the right direction.”