NASCAR Cup driver Josh Berry’s hometown tour began on May 29 with a win in the second annual Rackley Roofing Battle of Broadway 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
The Hendersonville native hopes the momentum from the JEGS/CRA All-Star Tours victory carries over into the Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 on June 1 at Nashville Superspeedway. Berry led for 93 laps and got the checkered flag by 15 car lengths ahead of second-place finisher Trey Craig. Hunter Wright of Lebanon was third.
“It’s definitely pretty cool to win here; momentum’s a real thing so it could carry over to the weekend,” Berry said. “It’s definitely going to be fun when I see my (Cup) race team on Saturday and they’re going to be asking me about the win instead of why I got my (expletive) kicked.
“A lot of guys in the Cup garage and the industry as a whole have a lot of respect for this place and anytime you can step down and run these races and win it’s a big deal.”
Berry began his racing career running Legends cars on the quarter-mile rack at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. He had not run on the 0.596-mile track until last year in the inaugural Battle of Broadway 150 when he was joined by fellow Cup driver Ross Chastain and finished fifth behind Chastain, who was fourth.
“I was teenager running Legends cars here and then we’d load up our car and go up in the stands and watch Willie (Allen) and Joe Buford and those guys run races here,” Berry said. “That was why I wanted to come here and check off that box in my career. I wanted to come here and first just compete and race on the five-eighths mile like I did last year, but obviously you want to win too, so that checked a big box for me and it was really special.”
Berry, in his second Cup season, won his first Cup race at Las Vegas in March. He is in his first season driving for Wood Brothers Racing.
Berry earned $10,000 and a guitar trophy by winning the Battle of Broadway 150. After starting fifth he moved to fourth early and second when he passed Chase Johnson from Mt. Juliet and Isaac Kitzmiller from Mooresville, North Carolina, on a restart on Lap 57.
Berry then hunted down the pole setter Dawson Sutton, a Lebanon resident who is competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Berry moved ahead of Sutton on Lap 81 and the race was never close again.
Not even after a second caution on Lap 115 after Brentwood’s Aiden Potter slammed into the wall and then into Stacey Crain. Berry resumed the lead and was never challenged.
“Honestly, I was really surprised that in that first (restart) the 20 (Johnson) took the bottom and that got me on the outside behind Dawson and he got a great restart and I was able to follow him,” Berry said. “Really, I thought Dawson had the best car and he stretched out a little bit and then I stayed closer. I started pressuring him and that surprised me. When we got in the top three I knew our car was good and when I was able to pressure (Sutton) I knew we had a really good shot.”
Craig, who won the race last year, said he had no shame in finishing second to a Cup driver.
“It’s awesome; (Berry) makes a lot of money to drive race cars,” Craig said. “We’re just guys that try to do this on the weekends and have fun and to run second to him means the world.”
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
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