Without the CARS Tour, Josh Berry isn’t in his second full-time season as a NASCAR Cup Series driver. However, it’s also true that CARS Tour isn’t as big of a deal with Berry either.
Berry is the winningest driver in the 11-year history of the Late Model Stock division, 22, including the 2017 championship. He would arguably have more if he didn’t spend several of those seasons racing part-time in the pursuit of NASCAR opportunities.
All told, Berry is inextricably linked to the CARS Tour and he is proud of the opportunity the Late Model Stock division has on Friday night racing at North Wilkesboro on FS1.
“It’s obviously really cool to get them on FS1,” Berry said. “The biggest thing, to me, is just the racing is good. Hopefully, tonight puts on a good show, but they go to tons of different tracks around here that put on really good racing, so the biggest thing is I just hope it draws a good audience and gets people excited about it to where they can do it more often.
“I’ll be honest. I watch ARCA races and they’re horrible. CARS Tour puts a way better product on to be on TV and they deserve a spot like that. I think hopefully tonight they do that.”
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With that said, Berry is also aware of the capacity for an occasional messy race from the CARS Tour too and hopes the division puts its best foot forward for a national audience.
“Hopefully, they don’t get too crazy – everybody getting wild on television,” Berry said. “Hopefully, we can get the races started and stay on time, but I’m excited to see how it does. I think it’s a great product.
“The series is obviously really competitive. It’s more competitive than ever and way more competitive than even when I was a part of it, so it’s a lot of positives for that deal. Hopefully, they knock it out of the ballpark.”
