Connect with us

CARS Late Model Stock Tour

Josh Berry Survives to Score CARS LMSC Victory at Hickory

Photo: Chris Owens / Short Track Scene

Josh Berry picked up his fourth career CARS Late Model Stock Tour victory on Saturday night at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Berry — a former champion at Hickory Motor Speedway — passed veteran Deac McCaskill on lap 112 and held him off to pick up the victory.  The win was Berry’s second at Hickory in CARS competition and his first win on the tour this season.

But the victory was not without controversy as Berry tangled with RD Smith earlier in the race in an incident that sent Smith hard into the wall. Smith looked like he received the all clear from his spotter and drifted right up into Berry while they were racing for third in the second half.

The contact destroyed the Smith car and severely damaged Berry’s.

“Man, that was one of the wildest races I’ve ever had here,” Berry said in victory lane after the race.  “That was crazy. First off, I want to apologize to [RD Smith]. I definitely wasn’t trying to do anything. We just got together and got hung. The last thing I want to do is rip the left front off of it, so I hate that happened to him.

“I’m sorry about it, but that’s just a racing deal. I definitely didn’t want it to end like that for either one of us. We were a little worried at that point. I didn’t realize how bad it was. I’m glad I didn’t, but I guess the fender flew off of it. We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the race, and I wasn’t sure we were going to have the car.”

But the damage didn’t seem to affect the handling of his JR Motorsports Chevrolet as he quickly worked his way through the top-5 and passed McCaskill off a restart with 13 laps to go.

“The track changed a lot on us and got real slick,” Berry said. “I think we were all sliding around. The high side had come in and, man, we just had to race hard. That was fun, but that was hard, man. Racing Deac McCaskill is always a pleasure. I look up to him a lot. We raced hard. He kind of got me on that [second to last] restart and I knew I had to dig deep and get back by him because these guys deserve to win, and we got it done.”

Even though he finished second, McCaskill was more than pleased to take the runner-up spot, given that he could only place 13th and seventh at Hickory during the 2015 season. This is a track that has given him fits over the years so he was content to finish second to the JR Motorsports ace.

“Josh was just strong here all weekend and we knew he was the class of the field,” McCaskill said. “We just decided to stick in the back a little and save tires for most of that race and it looked like we had the right idea for a little while.”

READ MORE — Deac McCaskill Satisfied with Runner-Up Finish

Berry was in contention all night long but he had to survive several incidents that took place in the mid-stages of the event, drawing numerous cautions and red flags.  The first of which was an incident between Berry and RD Smith, which Berry alluded to in his interview.

Several laps later, Jake Ruggles’ machine blew an engine, dropping oil all over the track.  Another red flag came out for an incident involving defending Hickory Motor Speedway champion Josh Berry and Justin Crider.

After the incident between Piercy and Crider, Crider expressed his displeasure with Piercy first by tossing his HANS device at him then by sending some hand gestures to Piercy.

Behind Berry in the finishing order were McCaskill and Tommy Lemons, Jr.  McCaskill and Lemons battled intensely for the second position in the closing laps.  McCaskill, who won at Southern National Motorsports Park back in April, edged Lemons for the spot.  Veteran Hickory Motor Speedway competitors Austin McDaniel and Landon Huffman finished fourth and fifth.

The complete results can be viewed below.

Unofficial Results

  1. Josh Berry
  2. Deac McCaskill
  3. Tommy Lemons, Jr.
  4. Austin McDaniel
  5. Landon Huffman
  6. Chris Hudspeth
  7. Chris Davis
  8. Craig Stallard
  9. Christian Eckes
  10. Matt Piercy
  11. Thomas Beane
  12. Stefan Parsons
  13. Justin Crider
  14. Ronald Hill
  15. Jake Ruggles
  16. RD Smith
  17. Ryan Wilson
  18. Chase Purdy
  19. Ryan Repko

Marquis comes from St. Charles, Maryland and has a widespread background in journalism, having covered politics in Washington and Maryland as well as nearly every form of auto racing, including NASCAR, IndyCar, AMA Motocross and IHRA Drag Racing. Now living near Emerald Isle, North Carolina, Marquis covers Late Model Stock Cars and Super Late Models in the Carolinas and Virginia.

Facebook

Archive

Advertisement

More in CARS Late Model Stock Tour