Berry’s Dark Horse Playoffs Run Turns Into a Campfire, and With It His Playoff Dreams at Bristol

September 13, 2025 Greg Engle 2025 Playoffs, Featured, NASCAR News Top Story 0


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Josh Berry’s Playoff run didn’t just sputter out — it went up in flames. Literally.

The Wood Brothers Racing driver came into Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol already dangling 45 points below the cutline. Winning was about his only ticket forward. Instead, he ended the Round of 16 with the NASCAR equivalent of a mic drop: three straight last-place finishes, capped off by a Ford barbecue just 81 laps into the race.

It started on lap 74, when smoke began curling from the right front of the No. 21 Ford. Two laps later, the flames joined in. Berry limped the car to pit road, fire snapping at the fender, and bailed out with the help of his crew as safety teams doused what was left. And just like that, his season’s Playoff story ended in a cloud of smoke.

“Maybe seven or eight laps before we came down pit road we started getting some smoke in the cockpit,” Berry said afterward. “The longer I went the darker the smoke got and then, obviously, by the time we got on pit road it was completely black smoke. Something obviously caught on fire, so probably once again a car burned up for no reason.”

Berry admitted the fire never made it into the cockpit, but the smoke made it impossible to stay in. “It seemed like the fire stayed in the fender well, which is a good thing,” he said. “But it’s just disappointing again. The car was really good. That was gonna fall right into our wheelhouse. This one is gonna be hard to watch because that looks like it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

His Playoffs, however, were effectively over before they began. “Yeah, pretty much, but it really hasn’t been because of performance,” he said. “We’ve qualified well. We’ve had good cars. We just haven’t had the good finishes. I don’t think you could ever script three last-place finishes in the ways that we’ve gotten them.”

The tire mystery that defined Saturday night didn’t help matters. The softer compound created massive marbles and surprising wear once the lights came on. Berry was as surprised as anyone. “I was fully convinced it was gonna be hammer down, but you could tell 15 or 20 laps into the race the pace was falling off. The marbles started developing and, man, it’s crazy. It just has to do with the weather, I guess. It’s excessive, but I think it’s gonna be a hell of a race to watch.”

Still, Berry wasn’t in danger, at least not physically. “It wasn’t hot. The flames didn’t make it inside. It just got super smoky really fast,” he said. “We probably should have come a lap or two earlier and just ended it, but we were trying to fight to the very end.”

That fight has been the theme of his Playoffs: fight, get knocked down, and crawl away wondering what happened. At Darlington he bottomed out. Last week he got clipped by Chase Elliott. Saturday night, the fire gods had their say.

“It’s hard to put into words, but I’d be way more disappointed if we just ran like crap for three weeks,” Berry said. “We’ve been up front. We’ve qualified well. The cars have been fast and the performance has been good. If we just had a little bit of luck, I feel like we could be in a much better situation. Honestly, I think the way that was playing out we 100 percent had a chance to win tonight.”

Instead, he’ll finish the first round with three straight DNFs. “Better than three last-place finishes,” Berry said of his hopes for what’s left of the season. “Len was saying before the race that he never thought they’d had two in a row and now we’ve got three in a row.”

Greg Engle
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