Josh Berry Holds Off Austin McDaniel For Win In CARS Tour Season Opener At Concord

CONCORD, N.C. – Josh Berry dominated the Circle Track Warehouse 200 and held off Austin McDaniel in the closing laps to win the CARS Tour Late Model Stock season opener at Concord Speedway on Saturday afternoon.

Berry started on the pole, and he led all but seven laps to claim his first win of the 2017 season. The JR Motorsports driver is coming off a season, where he won an impressive five races in the series. Josh Berry now has nine career series victories.

“Ever since we came into the series, we’ve been good,” Berry said. “There’s really not that much different from the cars, it’s just, I guess the style of races and the racetracks fit my driving style a little bit better than some of the other ones. This place is unique for sure.  It takes a lot of discipline to run good here, and I think that kind of fits my style, just hitting your marks and being smart. I’m glad to start the year off with a win.”

On Saturday, Austin McDaniel took the lead away from Berry following a late-race caution with 14 laps to go. Up until that point, Berry had been the only driver to lead a lap. The two drivers battled side-by-side until Berry was able to retake the lead with just seven laps remaining.

“Yea, we were strong,” Berry said. “We had been good the whole time we had been here, and we knew that the cautions would come, and my car, I definitely felt like it needed a couple of laps to take off, and that one restart, he (Austin McDaniel) just got a good restart. He got through (Turns) 1 and 2 good, kinda pinned me down through the dogleg, and I got a little loose and lost some momentum. He was able to use his motor a little bit to keep me down there, and I just had to keep wearing him on the outside. Finally, he started to get loose, and I was able to drive by him, but he put up a good fight on the outside.”

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com | Austin McDaniel (No. 12) and Josh Berry (No. 88) battle hard in the closing laps for the win at Concord Speedway.

Layne Riggs finished just behind Berry and McDaniel in third. Justin Johnson finished fourth, and Deac McCaskill finished fifth. Ronald Hill, Myatt Snider, Cody Haskins, Justin Carroll and Craig Stallard rounded out the top-10.

As soon as the 100-lap race got underway, the caution flew, when Anthony Alfredo spun in Turn 3; however, the next caution didn’t come out until the halfway break. During the first live pit stop, Berry continued to lead, but it was McDaniel, who fell from second, all the way to fifth.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com | Anthony Alfredo crashes in Turn 3 at Concord Speedway.

Once the field went back to green, there was a huge, multi-car accident in-between Turns 3 and 4. Drivers involved in the wreck included: Craig Moore, Terry Brooks Jr., Logan Jones, Justin Carroll and possibly more. Officials displayed the red flag, while track personnel cleaned up the racing surface.

Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com | Terry Brooks Jr.’s car is destroyed after an accident in Turn 4.

The final caution of the afternoon came out on lap 85. C.E. Falk went up in smoke as he made his way through the dogleg on the backstretch.

The next stop of the schedule for the CARS Tour Late Model Stocks will be the River City QDMA Duels at Dominion Raceway in Virginia. Live broadcast of the race will be found on carstour.tv.

Results:

1.) #88 Josh Berry

2.) #12m Austin McDaniel

3.) #99 Layne Riggs

4.) #44 Justin Johnson

5.) #08 Deac McCaskill

6.) #74 Ronald Hill

7.) #2 Myatt Snider

8.) #2h Cody Haskins

9.) #57 Justin Carroll

10.) #42 Craig Stallard

11.) #28 Chris Hudspeth

12.) #88 Chris Davis

13.) #32 Brandon Grosso

14.) #06 Davin Scites

15.) #98 Stefan Parsons

16.) #8 Trevor Rizzo

17.) #11 Jeff Oakley

18.) #40 C.E. Falk

19.) #1 Craig Moore

20.) #23 Terry Brooks Jr.

21.) #77 Logan Jones

22.) #16 Colby Howard

23.) #88t Robert Tyler

24.) 8A Anthony Alfredo