Josh Berry secured a strong fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
AVONDALE, Ariz. — The newly signed Wood Brothers Racing driver of Josh Berry bounced back from his early season struggles, rallying to finish fourth in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
Berry turned in an impressive qualifying lap during Saturday afternoon’s single-car qualifying session, reeling in a 27.088-second lap, with a speed of 132.900 mph.
The talented short-track driver from Hendersonville, Tennessee, will start alongside defending NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year Carson Hocevar in the No. 77 Miner Chevrolet Camaro, representing Spire Motorsports for the start of Sunday’s 312-lap race at the one-mile oval venue.
The former JR Motorsports development driver would hold the position until the first caution came out in the race as Katherine Legge, making her NASCAR Cup Series debut, spun off of Turn 2, bringing out the first of 10 cautions in the race.
On the restart, Berry got into another heated battle with Hocevar and Tyler Reddick before he was able to get by both cars, filing in for third by Lap 20.
With 14 laps remaining in the opening stage, Ryan Preece, who was on his first set of the option tire, would rocket by Berry, who had fallen multiple seconds behind Reddick.
Josh Berry hovered inside the top 10 for a majority of Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway. (Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
Berry would fall two more positions but would ultimately finish off Stage 1 in a respectable sixth place.
Berry came down pit road during the stage caution after the driver of the No. 21 Ford had reported that he was “lacking rear grip” on the long run towards the end of Stage 1.
The No. 21 restarted eighth to begin Stage 2 as he would begin his climb towards the front of the pack.
The No. 21 team almost suffered a near disaster during the pit stop period on Lap 94 after the No. 71 entry of Michael McDowell blew a right front tire off his Chevrolet.
As the left front tire changer was attaching the wheel onto Berry’s Ford, the wheel was improperly attached. As the jack dropped, Berry rocketed out of his pit box before Berry’s crew chief, Miles Stanley, spotted the problem on the car, causing Berry to throw his car into reverse to reattach the wheel, putting Berry all the way back in 32nd for the Lap 98 restart.
Berry had climbed all his way back up through the field as he would barely avoid the Lap 99 crash that collected 11 cars, which helped in gaining more track position in the stage.
The driver of the No. 21 would ultimately wind up finishing 10th in Stage 2, claiming one additional point towards his efforts as the 34-year-old would gear up for the beginning of the final dash to the end.
Berry slowly made his way back through the field once the green flag flew back into the air and drove back to fourth for the final two-lap dash after the final caution of the race came out for Ty Gibbs, slamming the wall after suffering a mechanical issue.
Berry held his composure together on the final restart, driving right to the back bumper of both Joe Gibbs Racing teammates of Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin as the white flag fell. Kyle Larson would pass Berry halfway down the backstretch and held off a hard charge from Chris Buescher and would roll to the fourth-place finish, a much-needed momentum boost for the sophomore driver.
“I hate that we had that mistake on pit road with the left rear that kind of knocked us back, but we were able to fight back up there and had some really good restarts,” Berry said in a post-race interview about his early mistake in the race.
“I felt like myself again. It is amazing what you can do when the car is handling like that. It was really solid and staying underneath me. I am super proud of these guys.”
Berry also expressed his emotions about how much of a momentum boost this fourth-place finish gives to the iconic Wood Brothers Racing team and also himself going into next week’s Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Yeah, I am proud of everyone on this 21 team, and thank you to eero for coming on board. Our car was really solid. It wasn’t mistake-free. We had an issue on pit road with the left rear, but we got backed up and got the wheel tight. We had some really good restarts. We had one toward the end that didn’t go our way, but pretty much every one of them, we were able to move forward and fight and claw. It is a credit to everyone on the 21 team, Ford and Wood Brothers Racing, and Team Penske. It was a lot of fun.”
“This racetrack was pretty tough for me last year, and these guys have great cars, without a doubt here. That was proven again today, and we executed pretty solidly and was able to get a good finish, which is really good.”
Berry exits Phoenix Raceway sitting 21st in the NASCAR Cup Series standings heading into next week’s 400-mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the running of the Pennzoil 400.
