Josh Berry Survives Chaotic Finish At Carteret To Win CARS Tour Race

Josh Berry Survives Chaotic Finish At Carteret To Win CARS Tour Race

by July 14, 2019 0 comments

PELETIER, N.C. – Josh Berry held off Deac McCaskill in the closing laps of Saturday night’s CARS Tour Solid Rock Carriers Crystal Coast 125 to win at Bobby Watson’s Carteret County Speedway.

Chad McCumbee started on the pole in his first-ever trip to the track. McCumbee dominated early until he was passed by Berry on lap 73. Berry methodically made his towards the lead on Saturday night by passing Layne Riggs and McCumbee in the second half of the race after starting on the outside of the pole.

“We’ve had a really good car all weekend since we’ve been here,” Berry said. “Early on, when we qualified second, we just kind of thought it’d be best to just stay in third for a bit. Around halfway, we kind of decided to maybe start to make a move at it, and I was able to get the lead away from Chad.”

Berry leads McCumbee around Turn 2. | Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com

Once the JR Motorsports driver made his way around McCumbee, he kept his car glued to the bottom of the track and survived multiple restarts in the closing laps to win his third CARS Tour race of the season.

“We had a couple of restarts at the end obviously, and luckily we were in front of all that mess, and we were able to bring it home,” Berry said.

McCaskill had Berry in his sights at the finish, but he just wasn’t quite able to challenge for the lead.

“Me and Josh were pretty tit for tat,” McCaskill said. “He was just a little better there at the end. He had a little bit better forward drive. We had a good car. We got to second…he was so far ahead that it was going to take a miracle to catch him.”

McCaskill trails Berry in the closing laps. | Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com

While McCaskill finished runner-up, he wasn’t as thrilled at the end of the race, because he was involved in a lap 109 accident that completely changed the outlook of race. On a restart with just 16 laps to go, hard racing up front ended the night for several of the top contenders after McCaskill and Bobby McCarty made contact that ignited a chain reaction entering Turn 3.

“It’s unfortunate with that wreck,” McCaskill said. “I just come off of (Turn) 2, and my spotter said, Layne had kind of got to my bumper, and he just hollered ‘outside’, and I come off of Layne to make sure that I wasn’t going to get turned in the wall, and Bobby was there, and we hit. I just hate it. I hate racing like this. I hate tearing up cars.”

Bobby McCarty crashes hard in Turn 3. | Photo Credit: Hunter Thomas/TheFourthTurn.com

McCarty entered the night one point ahead of Berry in the series standings. Heated due to the championship being at stake, McCarty wasn’t happy about the move McCaskill made.

“That’s just some bull crap,” McCarty said. “I’m racing for a championship, and he literally just took every bit of that from me. We’re done in the points. That literally just handed it to Josh. I don’t know man, it’s frustrating. These guys work really hard.”

Sammy Smith, who started the race in last, came home with a third-place finish. Layne Riggs ran up front all night long. He finished in fourth. Justin Carroll rounded out the top-five.

Trevor Ward finished sixth, followed by Tyler Matthews, Mini Tyrell, Camden Gullie and McCumbee who suffered heavy front-end damage from the accident on lap 109.

The CARS Tour will visit Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 3 for the annual Throwback 276 presented by Baker Distributing. Many of the teams sport NASCAR and local racing throwback schemes during the unique event. Racing will get underway at 8 p.m. ET.

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