Garrett Campbell had taken the white flag and was half a lap away from his maiden CARS Tour victory when a caution allowed Josh Berry to become the ultimate opportunist on Saturday night during the Late Model Stock race at Tri County Motor Speedway.
Chris Davis spun in Turn 4 on the final lap and it forced a wild green-white-checkers that allowed Josh Berry to steal his third win of 2017.
Campbell was racing for the first time in two years and driving the driving the Patrick Racing No. 81 for the injured Jared Fryar. The eight-time UARA STARS winner gave Berry the bottom line for the pivotal restart while Deac McCaskill tried to take them three-wide into Turn 1.
Berry powered through up the middle in Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead. Campbell made a hard charge into Turn 3 to retake the lead, but Berry checked up and pulled off a crossover. The duo crossed the line side-by-side with Berry edging Campbell to the line by 0.076 of a second.
“I don’t know man,” was Berry’s reaction when asked how he won.
“At the beginning part I was trying to ride,” he said. “I didn’t think my car was that good. I was struggling, trying to find a line. I kept searching, working, and working, and working. I damn near was on the wall when I found a lot of grip. I never thought that caution was going to come out. I was happy with second at that point.”
Berry was surprised about just how far up the track he was eventually running.
“I missed running up high in practice, and that was quite a bit higher than what I was running in practice,” Berry said. “But I don’t know how it worked but we got to second and that gave us the opportunity to get it done.
Berry celebrated by jumping out of his car at the start-finish line and embracing his crew underneath the flag stand. He was exuberant but immediately collapsed next to his JR Motorsports No. 88, exhausted from 100 laps and the most improbable triumph of his career.
Berry had made peace with second.
“Finishes like that are what you dream about as a racer to have that opportunity to capitalize on that,” Berry said. “I never really thought it was going to be like that. I just got a hell of a run and just got it done. It was just a hell of a finish.”
The crash by Davis ended what was nearly two caution-free races for the CARS Tour on Saturday night. It also ended Campbell’s three-second lead.
In short, he was nonplussed.
“It was a good race, ” Campbell said. “We finally got to the front there and had about a quarter lap to go before we got the checkered flag, but somebody spun out. Had a restart, chose the outside, and Josh Berry just drove us off the race track.
“He’s a Dale Jr. Motorsports driver and races every week. This is my first time in the seat in two years. If I ran every week like he has and had to run somebody up three grooves to win, I’d really feel good about getting the checkered flag. But he can do it however he wants to do it, and that’s racing I guess.”
The excitement was not limited to just the final restart as Grosso and Deac McCaskill battled for the lead off and on throughout the night. At one point, they were side-by-side for the lead for over 20 laps. This was after Grosso and Craig Moore battle for the lead in the first 20 laps.
In route to the lead, Campbell had to get by Myatt Snider and Dexter Canipe, Jr. as they battled. At first, Campbell rode behind the duo before moving up the track. Campbell swept by on the high line by Snider and Canipe, using the same lane in which he would eventually take the lead.
Complete LMSC Results from the CARS Tour Do The Dew 200 can be found below.
- Josh Berry
- Garrett Campbell
- Brandon Grosso
- Deac McCaskill
- Anthony Alfredo
- Craig Moore
- Dexter Canipe, Jr.
- Justin Carroll
- Tommy Lemons
- Justin Johnson
- Layne Riggs
- Myatt Snider
- Austin McDaniel
- Ty Gibbs
- Ronald Hill
- Chris Hudspeth
- Matt Leicht
- Evan Swilling
- Justin Crider
- Chris Davis
STS’ Matt Weaver contributed to this report
