Berry Remains In Must-Win Territory After Richmond

Josh Berry (HHP/Jacy Norgaard photo)

RICHMOND, Va. – Josh Berry finished 14th in Sunday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, falling well short of grabbing the win he still needs to lock into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Berry showed improvement early on in the weekend. On Saturday he was 33rd-fastest in practice, before jumping significantly in qualifying by grabbing the third starting spot for race day.

During the early laps, Berry hung around the top 10 and was credited with a stage point at the end of stage one. However, from there Berry was simply on the wrong side of strategy to contend for a top finish, stuck around the mid-teens for most of the second half.

“It was fun. We struggled a little bit more than we thought we were going to, but all in all we executed a good race, stayed on the lead lap and got a solid finish,” said Berry of his race.

The 33-year-old earned his ninth top-15 finish of the season and his third top 15 in three career Cup Series starts at Richmond, but that’s all disappointing when Berry’s decorated short-track career is taken into account.

He’s the 2017 zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour titlist and 2020 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion, as well as the all-time leading winner on the CARS Tour and a victor in premier late model races including the Fall Brawl at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway, the former Myrtle Beach 400, and the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

In short, that Berry was such a non-factor at Richmond given his prowess at that style of racing throughout his career was extremely surprising.

For the Hendersonville, Tenn. native, it’s win or bust at this point when it comes to making the postseason.

Berry sits 175 points back of 16th place on the cut line, and in light of Austin Dillon’s upset triumph, he dropped to 24th in the playoff standings.

Like his fellow cut line competitors, Berry will have three more chances to crack the code and make the 16-car playoff grid, at Michigan Int’l Speedway, Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway and Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

However, Berry hopes to use Richmond as a launching point, and take things one race at a time. He will make his third career Cup Series start at Michigan next weekend, but his first with Stewart-Haas Racing.

“We’ll just build off of [Richmond] and go to Michigan,” said Berry after the race. He hopes to capture his first top-20 finish at the two-mile oval.

With three races left in the regular season, the Cup Series visit to the Irish Hills of Brooklyn, Mich., looms next on Sunday, Aug. 18.

Coverage of the FireKeepers Casino 400 begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.