Josh Berry pulled off a miraculous escape after spinning his car 360 degrees during the final stage of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Luckily, he managed to keep his car away from the oncoming traffic and also missed the wall by mere inches. It has been a good race for Berry so far, as he’s led laps and is going strong even after 350 laps.

Additionally, Josh Berry’s spin marked the eighth caution flag for the race. The tire wear seems to have taken a huge toll on the driver, and the SHR driver certainly felt the full effect of it while coming down hard in Turn 2. With a quarter of the race still to run, it will be interesting to see how the teams and drivers manage their strategies. Considering how things have unfolded at the racetrack, this could be anyone’s race as of now.

Josh Berry registers his best-ever result since the start of the season at Bristol

Coming fresh from strong qualifying rounds on Saturday, Berry, starting in the P2 position, was expected to deliver the goods for Stewart Haas Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. He did manage to lead the race on multiple occasions during the race, but a fatal spin due to the worn-out right rear tire cost him his track position. It was indeed a clutch save he pulled off when his car spun when his right rear tire gave in, a move that allowed him to make his final dash in the dying stages of the race.

With the troubles he had to face with his tires, he still kept his head in the race and started to gain momentum. The reward for his relentless efforts was his finish so far in the season. After a late push, the rookie SHR driver managed a #12 finish. Had it not been for his incident with the tires and a couple of wrecks involving other drivers, he very well could have finished inside the top 10 positions.

Sharing his thoughts after the race, Josh Berry said, “We had a really good car, we raced up front. When we had the one set that courted and we spun and we lost track position, we could never really break back into the top five. We started making changes to the car to compensate that, but we made the tires cord faster… I think I had three flat tires and I was on fire, but we made it 73 laps, so I don’t think it would have made it 74.”

While it was all fun for the fans to witness the drivers put to the test with tire wear off at the race, and 16 drivers leading throughout the race, Josh Berry is definitely not looking forward to a similar experience in upcoming short-track races.

“This is not what we need,” says the SHR driver on the tire management strategy at Bristol

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The Food City 500 race at Bristol Motor Speedway looked like a return to old-school short-track racing. This indeed was an entertaining watch for the spectators and fans, who were anticipating the next move the teams and drivers would make, owing to the track difficulty. Even Berry had his share of fun racing in the treacherous conditions, but moving ahead, he would not like a repeat of today’s tire struggles.

“Towards the end, everybody kind of realized that the tires just went to a point and then corded and then that was it. It was definitely interesting, right? The restarts were tough, I think you wanted to be on the bottom in the resin for the grip, but you wanted to get some track positions on the top; it was a trade-off. I’m not gonna lie, it was fun, but obviously this is not what we need going forward,” he added.

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While a better result was on the cards, given his past performances, Josh Berry will take the positives from today’s race and try to build momentum.