CUP: DVP under scrutiny as Berry becomes second driver in three weeks to finish last by way of tow truck

Written By Brock Beard

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO: Stephen Stumpf, @stephen_stumpf

Josh Berry picked up the 2nd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 presented by ESPN Bet at the Kansas Speedway when his #4 Bed Bath & Beyond Ford was involved in a muti-car crash and was prevented from completing any of the 267 laps.

The finish, which came in Berry’s 42nd series start, was his second of the season and first since Gateway, 15 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 45th for the #4, the 676th from a crash, and the 753rd for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 74th for the #4, the 1,053rd for Ford, and the 1,395th from a crash.

As Stewart-Haas Racing winds down their last season before their impending closure, they’ve turned their focus to capitalizing their last push at both a XFINITY and Cup Series Championship. While defending XFINITY champion Cole Custer is joined by Riley Herbst in Saturday’s Playoff opener, Chase Briscoe’s walk-off win in the Southern 500 secured SHR a spot in the Cup Series Playoffs. To that end, Josh Berry’s pit crew was just this week swapped to Briscoe’s team, but Rodney Childers would continue to call the shots for Berry. Next year, the two will part ways – Berry will drive for the Wood Brothers while Childers goes to Spire Motorsports.

Since his most recent last-place run at Gateway, Berry finished 7th at Iowa, then a season-best 3rd in the damp conditions at Loudon before starting outside-pole at Nashville. But from that Nashville race forward, he’d only once finished better than 20th, taking 14th during NASCAR’s experiment with two tire compounds at Richmond. Nashville was also his first of four DNFs due to crashes in that same 11-race span. Things have hardly been better in his return to the XFINITY Series with a struggling AM Racing, taking 27th in Pocono, then last at Indianapolis, where he was wiped out in a first-lap pileup.

At Kansas, Berry was one of 38 drivers entered, of which he ranked 23rd in opening practice. He then qualified 15th of the 19 cars in Round 1B with a lap of 30.596 seconds (176.494mph), which secured him 29th on the grid.

Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Chase Elliott, who turned just 19 laps in practice as he believed his #9 UniFirst Chevrolet was down a cylinder. Those concerns were confirmed in qualifying, when he ran the slowest lap of the session at 32.345 seconds (166.950mph), nearly a half-second off the next-slowest car of 36th-place J.J. Yeley in the #44 Urban Racing School Chevrolet. Elliott’s team changed engines, and incurred a redundant tail-end penalty for Sunday. While Elliott’s was the only penalty, he moved up a row before the start as Yeley dropped from 36th to 38th on the outside of Ryan Preece’s #41 HaasTooling.com Ford.

When the green flag dropped, Elliott made quick work of 35th-place Jimmie Johnson, who was to his left in the #84 Family Dollar / Dollar Tree Toyota. Elliott pulled to the right entering Turn 1, putting him on the outside of a four-wide battle for 32nd with John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, and Kaz Grala, then a three-with battle with Ty Dillon’s #16 FitRx Chevrolet near the low lane to the outside of Berry. Just ahead of them, Chris Buescher’s #17 Fastenal Ford dropped back in the second lane, forcing another four-wide formation with Daniel Hemric and Harrison Burton to Buescher’s outside and Corey LaJoie to his inside. The funnel then narrowed around Burton’s #21 Menards / Dutch Boy Ford as Buescher came up to Burton’s left, just as Elliott had a fender on Burton’s right-rear corner. Burton nudged Elliott into the outside wall, then hooked left across Dillon’s nose and clipped Berry in the right-rear, sending Berry spinning down the track with Dillon and Burton.

Under the ensuing caution, Elliott continued around the track with the right side scuffed up while both Dillon and Burton limped to pit road. But Berry dropped to last place with all four tires flat, his car stopped on the apron. A tow truck came to the scene, and the crew dropped his window net, telling Berry to climb out of the car. Berry declined, knowing if he did, he’d be out of the race. “We’re not getting out,” said his crew. “We’re not done. . . We didn’t come out to run half a lap.” Berry remained in the car while it was towed backward along the apron, expecting to be brought back to pit road. Instead, the truck turned hard left at the opening to the infield entering Turn 3, ending his race under the “Damaged Vehicle Policy.” “And now they're taking me in the infield (at Turn 3), so they get the last laugh,” said Berry on Lap 4.

The tow truck then stopped a short distance behind the wall on a narrow road between the mobile homes in the infield. “They got me in the fucking campground, Rodney,” said Berry. “They can't get through here.” Then the officials told Berry to get out of the car, saying the car was going to be brought to the garage on a rollback, and he couldn’t stay on the car as it was loaded. Crew chief Rodney Childers tried calling NASCAR officials, but received no response. Berry climbed out among the surprised fans, and his car was hoisted onto the rollback on Lap 6, just as the race restarted. The whole affair wasn’t mentioned by the USA broadcast, but his car could clearly be seen during an overhead shot just before the restart.

It wasn’t until Lap 19 that the rollback carrying Berry’s car arrived at the entrance to the garage, where it stopped briefly for NASCAR official David Green to arrive at the scene. It then stayed on the rollback until Lap 38, and Childers and crew were finally able to bolt on a new set of tires. The team looked under the hood before shutting off the onboard camera.

Childers tweeted that the incident, reminiscent of Blaney’s own last-place finish at Watkins Glen, was “the most screwed up thing I’ve ever seen or been involved with,” asking why NASCAR didn’t bring the car to pit road for fresh tires. Pictures indicated a scuffed right-rear fender as the only external damage, though it was unclear if the team also had to repair the toe link while changing the tires. Berry matched his crew chief’s frustration. “I have seen plenty of cars get towed to the pits and get tires put on,” said Berry by way of a statement to Ford, “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.”

Yeley led Lap 22 under caution, but his ride in the #44 lasted just short of halfway. While tracking down Erik Jones’ #43 AdventHealth Toyota, his dashboard lost power, forcing him behind the wall. The team estimated either the battery or master switch failed, and since they didn’t have a replacement of either, they pushed his car back to the garage, done for the afternoon in 37th.The 36th spot went to Jimmie Johnson, whose Toyota was damaged in the Lap 1 wreck as he tried to escape to the inside lane. Jones finished after he bounced off the wall, then spun into the frontstretch grass on Lap 98. Rounding out the group was Playoff contender Austin Cindric, whose #2 Menards / Moen Ford was running 13th when he spun down the backstretch on Lap 157 and struck the inside wall with the nose of his car.

Smith and LaJoie finish strong in Kansas

While the Lap 1 incident prevented Berry from completing a lap, Zane Smith continued his impressive resurgence by matching Berry for the most top-ten finishes by a rookie in 2024 – four – taking home 10th in the #71 Focused Health Chevrolet. Five spots behind him, Corey LaJoie finished 15th in the #51 Children’s Mercy Hospital Ford, his first start for Rick Ware Racing since swapping rides with Justin Haley. Haley finished 33rd in his reunion with Spire Motorsports, coming home a lap down after he spun his #7 Gainbridge Chevrolet. LaJoie has now finished 15th or better in four out of the last five races.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the third time a Cup Series driver finished last without completing a lap at Kansas. The last time it happened was on October 6, 2013, when Danica Patrick’s #10 GoDaddy Breast Cancer Awareness Chevrolet was the only driver eliminated from a four-car accident in Turn 2. The same thing happened in the same corner during the September 29, 2001 inaugural, where that year Casey Atwood’s #19 Dodge / UAW Dodge was the lone retiree. Both Atwood and Patrick were unable to drive back to pit road and climbed from their wrecked cars.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #4-Josh Berry / 0 laps / crash

37) #44-J.J. Yeley / 118 laps / electrical

36) #84-Jimmie Johnson / 257 laps / running

35) #43-Erik Jones / 263 laps / running

34) #2-Austin Cindric / 263 laps / running

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Stewart-Haas Racing (5)

2nd) Penske Racing (4)

3rd) Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Spire Motorsports (3)

4th) Rick Ware Racing (2)

5th) Front Row Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Trackhouse Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Ford (16)

2nd) Chevrolet (9)

3rd) Toyota (4)

2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

Brock Beard https://lastcar.info
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