Josh Berry laid down his own track record lap in Hedgecock Pole Qualifying for the CARS Late Model Stock Tour. JR Motorsports teammate Christian Eckes started to Berry’s outside, making it the first sweep of front row for Dale Earnhardt Jr’s CARS Tour teams in their history.

Much like Concord three weeks ago, Berry appeared to be the car to beat early, jumping out to an early advantage over Deac McCaskill, Christian Eckes and others. However, McCaskill was not content to ride second for long and swiped the lead away from Berry on lap 14.

McCaskill paced the field for 22 laps until Sam Yarbrough, who earlier had to leave the track for medical attention due to sickness, bypassed him for the lead on lap 37.

Bryant Barnhill brought out the first caution of the event with a lazy spin in turn one and the resulting restart gave the competition a chance to joust with Yarbrough once more. The No. 20 held onto the lead and set the pace through the two-thirds mark of the event.

By lap 70, Josh Berry had reeled in Yarbrough for the race lead and began aggressively challenging the four-time track champion for the top spot. He maneuvered his way around on lap 73 for his second stint of the evening at the front of the field.

Tommy Lemons and Stefan Parsons waged war with each other in the middle of the top ten at the same time the lead battle was being fought, with Parsons and Lemons making contact that damaged Parsons’ No. 98 car. Lemons appeared to be undamaged until the right rear tire went flat on lap 84, forcing officials to throw the second caution flag of the night and bringing the No. 27 to pit road for a fresh tire with only 16 laps remaining.

On the restart, Berry once again shot out ahead of the field and gave no one a shot to bypass his Speedco Chevrolet. Lemons, however, charged his way from 16th to second by lap 95. But Berry’s car was too far ahead by the time Lemons was in position to challenge. Berry cruised to his seventh career series win, the fourth for the Tennessee native this year. Lemons finished second while Yarbrough, Eckes and McCaskill rounded out the top five.

“He started slipping a little bit and I could see it, so I tried to push him a little bit and see what he had, and as soon as he went to the top I knew he was searching and I felt really good at that point,” Berry said in Edelbrock Victory Lane. “I just tried to get the lead and manage it. With Tommy having a new right rear at the end, I knew if we got a caution we’d probably be in trouble and I just tried to stretch it out as much as I could and pull away. I have to give a lot of credit to these guys, they’ve worked extremely hard driving this car here and doing everything they do to allow me to make it farther in this sport and they’ve been supporting me the entire time.

“The streak that we’re on right now is one that I’m never going to take for granted in my life. It feels so fortunate to win all these races and I just want to keep it going,” he opined later in the victory lane interview.

Berry arrived in Myrtle Beach at noon on raceday after arriving at his home in Charlotte at 3:30am that morning following his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut. In an underfunded truck, Berry wrestled his way to a 13th place finish in his first start in the third-tier national series.

“DJ Kopp put me in that truck on Friday night because he saw me race at Tri-County, saw me win, and called me to say, ‘Hey, let’s go run a race,” and those opportunities are few and far between right now,” Berry explained when asked about how much his CARS Tour success is helping his career. “I just know that at this stage of my career, I’m not getting any younger and I need to perform at a high level in every race. We’ve got a great crew and great racecars right now, and when you have those you’ve got to win, and that’s what I’m trying my hardest to do. I never thought I’d have the success I’ve had, and I’m just very thankful for the opportunity, and I’m always trying to find the next one and hopefully that comes soon for me.”

CARS Late Model Stock Tour
Myrtle Beach Speedway – September 17, 2016
POS NUM DRIVER LAPS REASON OUT
1. 88b Josh Berry 100
2. 27 Tommy Lemons 100
3. 20 Sam Yarbrough 100
4. 1 Christian Eckes 100
5. 08 Deac McCaskill 100
6. 98m BJ Mackey 100
7. 88t Robert Tyler 100
8. 7 Justin Crider 100
9. 12 Austin McDaniel 100
10. 99 Layne Riggs 100
11. 41 Haley Moody 100
12. 98 Stefan Parsons 100
13. 28 Chris Hudspeth 100
14. 74 Ronald Hill 100
15. 5 Stephen Leicht 100
16. 23 Zachary Dabbs 100
17. 88 Chris Davis 100
18. 31 Thomas Beane 99
19. 42 Craig Stallard 84 Mechanical
20. 8 Trevor Rizzo 63 Exhaust
21. 5b Bryant Barnhill 50 Mechanical