Berry Bounces By McCarty for CARS Tour Win at Dominion Raceway
THORNBURG, VA (June 24, 2019) – Josh Berry bested the field on Saturday night at Dominion Raceway in the CARS Tour Radley Cadillac & Chevrolet 125, his 16th series win. The victory came after Berry passed his closest rival, Bobby McCarty, for the race lead with 49 laps to go and it kept him within one point of the championship lead.
Following Hedgecock Pole Qualifying, McCarty appeared to be the man to beat after nearly breaking the series track record during his run. Berry, however, qualified alongside the No. 22 and the pair led the field to the green flag.
The first major caution of the evening occurred on lap 26 when Camden Gullie’s engine expired on the backstretch. Doug Barnes, Jr., and Mason Diaz made contact less than a lap after the restart, triggering a multi-car incident which eliminated Diaz and Trevor Ward from the event while also sweeping Ronald Hill into the mess.
On each of the early restarts, Berry was able to nose ahead of McCarty for a lap, but the No. 22 Toyota continued to set the pace despite Berry’s early attempts at the lead.
A competition caution on lap 66 drew the field closer together and allowed Berry to once again hone in on his nemesis for the race lead. After peppering the rear bumper of McCarty with love taps for nearly ten laps, he muscled his way by with authority on lap 77 and began to pull away.
The JR Motorsports driver remained unchallenged in the final 49 circuits, cruising to Edelbrock Victory Lane in a car originally built for his boss, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., to race. McCarty finished second by a margin of 2.621 seconds. Brandon Pierce, Mini Tyrrell and Layne Riggs rounded out the top five.
“It cooled off and the track came to us,” Berry said in Edelbrock Victory Lane. “When it came time to go, it went. I couldn’t believe once we got out front how well it ran and we were able to just drive away. That was pretty fun. This was a pretty amazing racecar, first race on this thing and it’s just a credit to all these guys for all their hard work.
“This is a huge weekend for us, obviously with Mark [from his sponsor] coming down here and with his support of our race team,” he continued. “I wouldn’t be doing this without him. This is a place we don’t race a whole lot and it’s only my second race here and we didn’t come test, we just kinda showed up with a brand new racecar, pinned our ears back and tried to make it work. And we were able to do that. That thing got out front at the end and it was a rocket. It was a lot of hard work, and I’m looking forward to getting to some more tracks that we’ve been to a lot.”
The next event for the CARS Racing Tour will take place July 13 at Carteret County Speedway, the Solid Rock Carriers Crystal Coast 125, a standalone event for the late model stock cars with support from various local divisions at the retro-themed facility on the coast of North Carolina. The event features one of the largest purses of the season spread throughout the field with an already-record number of pre-entries in the facility’s history.
For more information on the CARS Tour, visit their website at CARSRacingTour.com, or follow them on Facebook (@CARSTour), Twitter (@CARSTour), Instagram (@cars_tour), and Snapchat (@carstour). The series also has its own YouTube channel, Roku channel (available through its TV website), and a publicly available Amazon FireTV app.
THE FINISH
CARS Late Model Stock Tour
Radley Cadillac & Chevrolet 125
Dominion Raceway – June 22, 2019
POS NUM DRIVER LAPS REASON OUT
1. 88 Josh Berry 125
2. 22 Bobby McCarty 125
3. 2 Brandon Pierce 125
4. 81 Mini Tyrrell 125
5. 99 Layne Riggs 125
6. 88B Doug Barnes, Jr. 125
7. 08 Deac McCaskill 125
8. 7 Michael Hardrin 125
9. 63 Tyler Matthews 125
10. 74 Ronald Hill 125
11. 98 Adam Lemke 125
12. 55 Howie DiSavino, Jr. 125
13. 1 Craig Moore 124
14. 17P Stacy Puryear 124
15. 91 Justin S. Carroll 124
16. 57 Justin Carroll 124
17. 90 Terry Carroll 124
18. 19C Jessica Cann 121
19. 4 Jonathan Findley 93 Mechanical
20. 19 Cameron Bowen 65 Mechanical
21. 12 Mason Diaz 26 Accident
22. 77 Trevor Ward 26 Accident
23. 07 Camden Gullie 26 Engine
Sources: Tony Stevens/CARS Tour PR
Photo Credit: Pit Row Media / Dinah Mullins