Berry: Kansas Exit ‘Was An Experience Like No Other’

Josh Berry's crew with the No. 4 Ford in the Kansas Speedway garage area. (Nigel Kinrade photo)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Josh Berry didn’t even get through a half lap in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 before his day ended controversially in the Kansas Speedway garage area.

After starting 29th on the grid, Berry found himself on the inside of a four-wide scrum exiting turn two, when Harrison Burton came down the racetrack into Ty Dillon before also hooking Berry in the right rear.

Though Berry avoided a heavy hit to the outside SAFER Barrier, all four tires on his No. 4 Bed Bath & Beyond Ford Mustang Dark Horse were flat. Once a tow truck took Berry behind the wall instead of back to his pit box – by the wording in NASCAR’s Damaged Vehicle Policy – he couldn’t re-enter the race.

That left the Hendersonville, Tenn., native last – 38th – in the finishing order, with no laps completed.

As Berry later noted on his radio to crew chief Rodney Childers, he was taken through the infield campground toward a waiting rollback truck and was asked by officials to get out of his car so it could be loaded onto the flatbed.

He was incensed when speaking after, by rule, being checked and released from the infield care center.

“That was an experience like no other,” said Berry. “Obviously, we got clipped and spun, and we had four flat tires. I assumed they were going to tow the car to the pits, which is what I was asking for, and then they dropped my window net and told me to get out. Rodney (Childers) told me to stay in because all we needed was tires. [But] they were telling me to get out. Then they towed me into the campground, so I was just out there chilling with the fans. At that point, they said they had to get a rollback, and they finally made me get out. Rodney was trying to talk to somebody and couldn’t get anybody on the phone.

“I don't know what I am missing,” he added. “I have seen plenty of cars get towed to the pits and get tires put on, so I don't know if I am missing something or if there was something different than normal … but that was an experience for sure.”

Asked why the car was towed where it was, Berry tipped he did have a reason, though he didn’t agree with it.

“They said the tire was off the wheel, which it is flat so of course it is off the wheel. They just refused to tow the car,” he said. “They tried hooking it up on both ends, which I knew wasn’t going to work. I don’t know why they didn’t just hook it up with the rear and tow it to the pit box and let us get tires on it.

“[The whole thing] is disappointing.”

Childers quickly took to social media to add his thoughts on the situation.

“I’ve seen a lot of things over my 25 years in the Cup Series, but that’s the most screwed up thing I’ve ever seen or been involved with,” Childers wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “All we needed was tires with air in them. How many times have we drug cars to the pit stall to put tires on them? Why [not] today?!?”

Perhaps notably, the contrasting point came on lap 98, when Erik Jones’ No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE spun off turn four – but did not hit anything – and came to rest in the infield grass on the frontstretch.

Jones’ car had a right-front flat, but he was able to nurse his car back to pit lane after being pulled out of the ballfield by a tow truck, allowing the Legacy Motor Club driver to continue in the race.

Per The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck, a NASCAR spokesperson later reiterated that the rule is “if a car is involved in a wreck, has flat tires, and can’t drive it back, they’re out [of the race]. [A car] can only get towed back for new tires if it’s a spin without contact.”

The explanation didn’t fix anything for Berry and his team, however. They just wanted to be given a fair chance to get back in the game.

“It’s so crazy, the whole sequence of events, that I haven’t even processed it yet. That is the risk you take though, when you qualify where we did,” Berry admitted. “I overdrove [turn] one in qualifying and got loose and those are the types of things that happen.

“It is still on me, but I wish we could have gotten some tires on it and finished the race.”

Berry’s next chance to bounce back and attempt to help end Stewart-Haas Racing’s NASCAR Cup Series tenure on a positive note comes at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Broadcast coverage of the Yellawood 500 at the 2.66-mile oval is slated for Sunday, Oct. 6 at 2 p.m. ET, live on NBC, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.