Josh Berry uses strong short run car to hold off charge from Suarez to collect first NASCAR Cup Series victory in Pennzoil 400
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Las Vegas-Josh Berry has done a lot of driving and won in many disciplines on the pavement world. But winning in the NASCAR Cup Series is the one thing that he has yet to do.
On Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Berry punched his ticket to the NASCAR Playoffs as he won his first career race in the Pennzoil 400.
Berry was able to take the lead on the final restart of the race on lap 249 and lead the final 18 laps on the way to scoring the win. He did this by having a very strong car for the short run to end the race.
“Oh, man, I don’t even know what to think,” Berry said on the frontstretch after his win. “Just awesome. I love this track. Las Vegas has been so good to me. So many great moments here.”
The win in Las Vegas isn’t too much of a surprise. He has twice won at the track in the Xfinity Series, which is why he is capable of getting the job done. The 34-year-old sophomore driver from Tennessee got those wins with JR Motorsports and Chevrolet. This was also just his 53rd Cup Series start.
“Really, just going back to the start, I felt like we had a good car,” Berry pointed out. “Obviously, we never got to the lead. Really the whole time, I just felt pretty confident about the car we had.
“I mean, these races are so long,” the driver continued. “It’s so easy to get your head out of the game when it comes down to I like I said, I’ve raced cars, I’ve built cars. When the car is good, the car’s good. That’s how I felt.”
Also going along with the victory is the fact that this is the 101st victory for Wood Brothers Racing. They have also now won races in back-to-back seasons with a pair of different drivers. Harrison Burton won the fall Daytona race last season and twice in the last 17 races. This is the first time the organization has done this since 1986 and 1987. It also locks them into the NASCAR All-Star Race in May.
“It’s just been incredible,” Berry added on his move to the team and winning in their fifth race together. “They’ve been so good to me. It’s just been a great relationship. Obviously, thank you everybody at the Wood Brothers Racing, but Team Penske as well. They’ve welcomed me with open arms and tried to help me and accelerate this learning process as much as I can.”
However, since the season started the team has hit the ground running as they have had speed nearly every week.
“We ran really well all year so far, early in the season. Things felt right. They just feel right,” Wood Brothers Racing co-owner Eddie Wood said. “I think Josh fits us. (Crew chief) Miles (Stanley) fits us. Everything just fits. I used to make fun of people years ago when they would talk about chemistry. Football teams, baseball, all that. Then it kind of bled over into racing. This goes back a few years.
“When things click, they click,” Wood continued. “I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. I was there when David Pearson and Leonard Wood, my uncle, hooked up. That clicked instantly, like right off the bat.”
Finishing second in the race was Daniel Suarez. He needed a good run after getting off to a slow start to the season. He wasn’t able to keep up on the final restart due to his car not being good on a short run and nearly wrecking in turns 1 and 2.
“My car was very strong, especially in the long run, but in the short run, that was I felt like a little bit of my weakness, especially for the contact that I had in one and two,” Suarez explained. “We tried to fix that a little bit, but unfortunately, wasn’t enough. Just just a little bit too much contact there, but it’s part of it.”
This was also his first top-five of the season. It is certainly a good way to start building momentum.
“It feels good,” Suarez continued. “Definitely, very proud of my team. It felt like something good to build on and ahead to next week.”
Ryan Preece brought it home in third. William Byron was fourth, and Ross Chastain was fifth. Byron extended the points lead to 29 points over Christopher Bell.
Coming in, Bell had won the previous three races and finished in 12th. Austin Cindric won stage one and finished 6th while stage 2 winner Kyle Larson finished 9th.
The NASCAR Cup Series will be back in action on Sunday at Homestead-Miami.
