Former CARS LMSC Tour champion Josh Berry nearly saw his points lead and hopes for a victory at Ace Speedway come to an end in an accident early in the race, but he managed to survive a caution-filled race and work his way to the front to become the series’ fourth different winner in 2019 after passing Bobby McCarty late in Friday’s 125-lap feature.
“I haven’t really had a lot of success here,” Berry said in victory lane. “I’ve only been here twice, and things haven’t gone that well each time. We took a little bit of a different approach and we just had a really good car this weekend from the moment we unloaded. We just got it to where it needed to be.”
After qualifying his Late Model in the eighth position, Berry intended to log laps through the opening stages of the race, but he would get turned around in an accident on Lap 3 that also collected Taylor Gray and Tommy Lemons Jr.
Berry sustained minimal damage in the spin, but he would be forced to climb his way from the tail end of the field with over 120 laps to work with. Berry initially struggled to work his way through the slower traffic, but he would eventually find himself inside the Top 10 after only a handful of circuits.
Berry survived another near miss on Lap 30 when Leland Honeyman locked up the brakes and grazed the right rear of Berry’s Late Model before colliding with Brandon Pierce, but he was able to continue on without coming down pit road for repairs.
Berry continued his methodical approach towards the front of the field as the laps clicked off, working his way up to the second position before a caution for a Mini Tyrrell spin slowed the field down on Lap 89. Berry would be forced to deal with Bobby McCarty on the ensuing restart, who had led every lap after passing polesitter Ryan Millington on the fourth lap of the race.
McCarty used the low side of the track on the restart to pull ahead of Berry, but he would get into the back of McCarty in Turn 4, which knocked him out of the groove and put Berry in the lead. Berry proceeded to pull away from the rest of the field over the final 30 laps to cruise to a comeback victory at Ace.
“As competitive of a field as this is, stuff like that doesn’t happen very often,” Berry said about his drive to the front. “We had such a great car. We could just turn up underneath them and make some great passes, and I think that showed by how quickly we were able to move up through the field. We’ll take this, and I am very excited to win this one tonight.”
Millington remained a factor inside the Top 5 all evening and would come home in the second position. Deac McCaskill came home in third, while McCarty and Berry’s teammate Adam Lemke rounded out the Top 5.
LMSC Race Results:
1. 88 Josh Berry
2. 15 Ryan Millington
3. 08 Deac McCaskill
4. 22 Bobby McCarty
5. 98 Adam Lemke
6. 25 Zack St. Onge
7. 07 Bradley McCaskill
8. 81 Mini Tyrrell
9. 12 Sammy Smith
10. 17p Stacy Puryear
11. 1 Craig Moore
12. 4 Jonathan Findley
13. 01 Camden Gullie
14. 63 Tyler Matthews
15. 74 Ronald Hill
16. 2 Brandon Pierce -1
17. 19c Jessica Cann -5
18. 77 Trevor Ward -6
19. 17 Taylor Gray OUT
20. 99 Layne Riggs OUT
21. 19 Cameron Bowen OUT
22. 27 Tommy Lemons Jr. OUT
23, 57 Justin Carroll OUT
24. 4h Leland Honeyman OUT
25. 18 Jason York OUT
