Austin McDaniel was on rails Saturday night in the CARS Tour Do the Dew 200 but simply got beat by the surging Josh Berry at Tri County Motor Speedway in Granite Falls, NC.

McDaniel led 45 laps (second only to championship leader Deac McCaskill) but wasn’t able to hold off Berry on a restart with 15 to go. There was slight contact between the two and McDaniel fell back to third behind McCaskill.

He spent the next two laps driving deep into the corners to get back to Berry but spun coming out of Turn 2 with 13 to go. He was in the middle of Berry and McCaskill and there was contact again between the two top cars.

“Josh was on the top with us in the middle and it felt like he came across our nose or I moved up into him,” McDaniels said. “But when we hit tires it just turned us around.”

He rallied to finish eighth (where he started) but was left wondering about what could have been. It was especially frustrating for McDaniel because he had spent the past 20 laps holding Berry off under green. Berry could get to his back bumper but just couldn’t complete the pass.

McDaniel was getting a great run off the top side of the track and Berry just couldn’t find the grip to finish the move on the bottom. Ultimately, it was the caution with 15 laps to go that unraveled McDaniel’s first possible CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car victory.

“We had an awesome car,” McDaniel said. “We started eighth and drove up to the lead and had the car working really good on the top. Josh tried to move us but just couldn’t get by us.

“All and all, I just hate it for my guys because of house good the car was. When we got to the top they had a hard time getting past us. The guys my crew chief Jonathan Morrison and everyone at Lee Faulk Racing had the car pretty much on rails.”

(Photo Courtesy of Adam Fenwick)