LUCAMA, N.C. – Brandon Pierce passed Josh Berry in the closing laps of the Solid Rock Carrier 150 on Saturday to win the CARS Tour season opener at Southern National Motorsports Park.

Berry has won 14 CARS Tour races. To put that into perspective, there have only been 45 CARS Tour races since they re-branded from the Pro Cup days. Josh has won nearly a third of the tour races to this date. So, of course, he was a favorite going into the Solid Rock Carrier 150.

Berry took the lead from Pierce on lap seven. From that point forward, Berry asserted himself as the car to beat throughout the race. Although Berry never pulled away (until much later in the race), he kept the field at bay. There were plenty of comers and goers like Chad McCumbee who had worked himself up to second and quickly faded after that. But there were also a few consistent faces in the top-five all race long.

Outside of the monster truck show Camden Gullie put on with Brody Pope, the first half of the race consisted of a few single-car incidents. A competition caution flew at lap 85 to bunch the field back up after a 40-lap green flag stint.

Once the field took the green flag, Berry once again set sail for a while until a late restart where Pierce seemed to have cleared him only to be let down and passed by Berry the following set of corners. On lap 141, Ronald Hill’s No. 74 car came to a stop, in Turn 2, bringing out the caution (reports of his car being out of fuel). Berry and Pierce lined up side-by-side once again and Berry pulled away.

With only nine laps left on the board, a spark seemed to have lit under Pierce’s seat as he began reeling in Berry for the top spot. Going into Turn 1, Pierce gave Berry a shot and got by him going down the backstretch. Pierce had finally shaken off whatever gremlins had haunted him for the last year or so and won a CARS Tour race.

Pierce teamed up with Lee Pulliam in the off-season to get a fresh start on his career and it obviously paid off. He and his team went home $10,000 richer after winning the Solid Rock Carriers 150. Berry and Deac McCaskill finished out the podium positions.

The CARS Tour Late Model Stock drivers will be back in action on Saturday, March 23 for the MTP Tire 300 at Hickory Motor Speedway. Racing is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET.

Results

1.) 2 Brandon Pierce

2.) 88 Josh Berry

3.) 08 Deac McCaskill

4.) 22 Bobby McCarty

5.) 18 Riley Herbst

6.) 99 Layne Riggs

7.) 55 Drew Dollar

8.) 17p Stacy Puryear

9.) 2s Myatt Snider

10.) 57 Justin Carroll

11.) 27 Tommy Lemons Jr

12.) 07 Bradley McCaskill

13.) 17 Taylor Gray

14.) 16 Chad McCumbee

15.) 63 Tyler Matthews

16.) 25 Zack St. Onge

17.) 19 Cameron Bowen

18.) 77 Trevor Ward

19.) 81 Mini Tyrrell

20.) 51 Matt Cox

21.) 01 Camden Gullie

22.) 23 Terry Brooks Jr.

23.) 74 Ronald Hill

24.) 4 Jonathan Findley

25.) 1 Craig Moore

26.) 12 Ryan Wilson

27.) 1p Brody Pope

28.) 98 Adam Lemke

Photo Credit: Brad Newman Photography