The Late Model career of Hendersonville, Tennessee native Josh Berry is filled with numerous accomplishments that include a victory in the 2017 Myrtle Beach 400 and a stellar resume in the CARS LMSC Tour with one championship and 17 wins.
Through all his success, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway has always eluded Berry, but the Late Model veteran is confident that he can finally shake off the bad luck that has plagued him in the prestigious race and join a long list of notable winners.
“It would be huge to win at Martinsville,” Berry told RACE22. “I feel like I say this every year, but I feel like this is the last race I really need to check off. With where we race and how we race in Late Model Stocks, we’ve never been able to win there. It’s a big deal, and I think it’s awesome that [JR Motorsports] has two great shots at the win [with Bubba Pollard and I].”
In his seven previous ValleyStar Credit Union 300 attempts prior to the 2018 season, Berry was plagued by numerous on-track incidents or mechanical failures that prevented him from qualifying or contending for the win, with his only lead lap finish coming in 2015; a disappointing 13th place run.
Berry’s fortunes during the race started to change in 2018, when he showed up at Martinsville with one of the best Late Models in the field and proceeded to lead a majority of the event while battling and holding off contenders such as Peyton Sellers, Layne Riggs and Bubba Pollard.
Berry had the lead on a late-race restart with Sellers to his outside, but following a multi-car pileup right at the start-finish line, NASCAR officials determined that Sellers had beaten Berry to one of the timing lines prior to the caution, which gave him the top spot while Berry was forced to formulate a gameplan from the second position.
On the ensuing restart, Berry managed to slightly pull ahead from Sellers but he and Sellers would make slight contact heading into Turn 1, which sent Berry around and ended his stellar evening on an anti-climactic note.
Berry stated that a conversation with Sellers about the accident would have been pointless in his eyes, adding that he was ready to move on from his 19th place run and build momentum during the final weeks of the season heading into 2019.
After a relatively slow start, Berry established himself as one of the championship favorites in the CARS LMSC Tour by winning three races at Ace Speedway, Dominion Raceway and Carteret County Speedway, and currently finds himself nine points behind Bobby McCarty as the series approaches its season finale at South Boston Speedway.
“With the exception of maybe one or two races, I really feel like we’ve been in a position to win or right in the middle of things,” Berry said about his 2019 Late Model season. “We’ve been really fast all year, but we’ve just had some things happen mechanically or on track, but it’s definitely been a great year for us despite those issues.”
Berry feels that he is in a great position to finally pick up a victory in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, especially with the newest addition to the JR Motorsports roster in Super Late Model veteran Bubba Pollard, who was also in contention for the win in 2018 until he was knocked out of the race in a battle for the lead between him, Sellers and Riggs.
Berry knows firsthand that having speed and experience are only a small part of the equation that leads to a win in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, which is why he and JR Motorsports plan to focus heavily on obtaining a strong qualifying run so they can avoid the inevitable chaos that has become synonymous with the event.
“We definitely want to avoid the heat races,” Berry said. “If we can qualify Top 5 or 10, then that will put us in a good spot for the race. After that, it’s all about staying out of trouble. We were really close to staying out of trouble last year until we weren’t, but we should be fine if we stay inside the Top 10 and have something to race with in the closing laps.”
Many of the same competitors that Berry kept in his rearview mirror in last year’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 are expected to try and qualify for the main event on Oct. 5, including Sellers, Riggs and two-time winners Lee Pulliam, Tommy Lemons Jr. and Timothy Peters.
Cover photo by Jaden Austin.
