FROM STAFF REPORTS

A NASCAR driver who was suspended earlier this week following his arrest faces two additional charges following the completion of an Iredell County Sheriff’s Office investigation.

Cody Shane Ware, 27, was charged with felony assault by strangulation inflicting serious injury and misdemeanor assault on a female on Monday and released on a $3,000 bond.

Ware, who lives in Mooresville and drives in the NASCAR Cup Series for Rick Ware Racing, turned himself in at the Iredell County Detention Center on Friday and was served with a warrant for misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury and a summons for communicating threats.

A magistrate issued a $5,000 bond on the new charges. As a condition of his release, Ware is required to wear an electronic ankle monitor.

The original charges and the new charges filed Friday as a result of the ongoing ICSO investigation stem from the same incident on April 3, when a woman called 9-1-1 and reported a domestic assault, according to the ICSO. 

According to an arrest warrant, Ware assaulted and struck the woman “by getting on top of her, pinning her to the bed, and throwing her to the ground several times.” During the assault, the victim suffered “a displaced fracture of the base of the fifth metacarpal bone” in her hand, the warrant said.

Prior to his arrest on Monday, Ware announced he would step away from racing “to focus on a personal matter.” He missed last weekend’s Cup Series race.

NASCAR subsequently announced that Ware had been suspended indefinitely. Zane Smith will drive the No. 51 Ford for Rick Ware Racing this weekend in Martinsville. 

Rick Ware Racing, which is owned by Cody Ware’s father, said in a statement that “Cody is fully cooperating with authorities.”