The last time Josh Berry raced a NASCAR Cup series car, it was 2021. Friday when he arrived at Las Vegas Motor Speedway he wasn’t aware that he would be making his third start in the NASCAR Cup series, and his first in a Next Gen car.
Chase Elliott changed all that. Elliott broke his leg in a snowboarding accident in Colorado Friday, and Hendrick Motorsports needed a driver to fill in. With Berry part of the Hendrick affiliated JR Motorsports team in the Xfinity series close at hand, Berry suddenly found himself in a brand new world.
He had a short practice session on Saturday, then qualified the car 32nd. Later that day he finished fifth in the Xfinity race.
Despite being a five-time winner in his 65 starts in the Xfinity series, Sunday there wasn’t much expectation for Berry. And in the end he did what he needed to do, kept out of trouble and brought the car back in one piece.
“It was a lot of fun,” Berry said. “Really, I thought the first half of the race went pretty well. We were really close, right on the edge of staying on the lead lap or not. We just needed a couple more cautions to just give ourselves a better chance.
“The second half of the race, we had an issue going on with the throttle or something because every time I was letting off, it was hanging wide-open. I was just trying to nurse it home and keep it out of trouble.”
He finished 29th, two laps down, but did what he was told to do: have fun.
“Yeah, it was a lot of fun,” he said. “I learned a lot, especially in the first two stages. I think we definitely saw at times we were running some pretty good lap times. Just struggled with dirty air; knowing where to put the car and how to do that. There’s a lot of learning to be done, but all-in-all, it was still a pretty good time.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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