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Short Track Community Reacts to Josh Berry’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Win At Martinsville Speedway

by Hunter Thomas April 11, 2021 0 comments

RIDGEWAY, Va. – Just a week ago, Josh Berry was celebrating an Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Late Model win at Florence Motor Speedway, and now he’s a winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Sunday’s victory at Martinsville Speedway.

Berry is a legend in short track racing, even second-place finisher Noah Gragson acknowledged that, but Sunday’s victory is about a grassroots driver finally winning in NASCAR’s national series after working so hard for years to get the opportunity. The Tennessee native won the prestigious ValleyStar Credit Union 300 Late Model race at Martinsville in 2019. He has won 19 races as well as the 2017 title in the CARS Tour. He is even the defending champion in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.

“This is for all of those guys (grassroots racers),” said Berry, driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet Associates Chevy. “There’s a ton of them out there that are like me that have won here and at all of these great short tracks around here. We can do it; we just need the opportunities. Today proved it. Yeah, it’s a short track, but it’s still damn hard to win here.”

Sunday’s win came in Berry’s 13^th  NASCAR Xfinity Series start, and throughout the years of one-off seasons or a couple of races a year, he has earned five top-10 finishes. This season alone, he had earned three top-10 finishes and led 95 laps in the six races he has competed in.

Following Sunday’s win, the short track racing community reached out to congratulate one of their own:

Photo Credit: James Gilbert/Getty Images