One contact point at Martinsville changed everything. Ryan Blaney’s championship hopes collided with Josh Berry’s final season for Wood Brothers Racing on lap 252, and the fallout left both drivers with two very different stories to tell. Blaney needed a clean day to keep his title defense alive. Berry needed a strong finish to close out his Wood Brothers tenure the right way.

While Blaney was noticeably distraught by the incident that ruined not only his race but also ended his hopes of fighting for the championship win at Homestead-Miami, Berry walked away with a rewarding fourth-place finish. The Team Penske driver did not hold back on blaming Berry for overreacting and ruining his race. But Berry’s post-race interview comments completely change how the incident could have unfolded.

When asked what led to the contact with the Team Penske driver, Berry’s response was measured.

“Um, I mean, obviously Ryan, you know, got into me pretty good there and I got up out of the groove just trying to save it, and we got together,” Berry said.

Josh Berry’s comment came after Ryan Blaney blamed him for causing the contact. The No. 12 Team Penske driver was also asked to weigh in on the incident and offer his perspective.

“We’re definitely getting better,” Blaney explained. “First stage we weren’t great but that run, where that happened, I thought we finally got pretty good. Like, I was passing some cars and really running kind of the front group down a little bit.”

“So I felt like we made good gains, and then yeah, I mean, the deal in three and four, like just barely accidentally bumped the 21, and he decided to slam on the brakes and end our day. So don’t really know why after just a little tiny bit of contact, not even on purpose, just uh lost his mind. So unfortunately ended our day, ” argued Blaney during NASCAR’s post race-interview.

Ryan Blaney was running eighth in the race when he made contact with Josh Berry ahead of him in turns three and four on lap 252 in stage two. While Blaney made a bold claim that the No. 21 driver overreacted and brake-checked him when he accidentally hit his bumper with the slightest impact, the latter has said the contact was rather intense and made him lose his groove.

The duo then had another intense contact as Berry backed into the Team Penske driver, slamming on his brakes, damaging his softened bumper. The collision was intense enough to cave and crush the front nose of Blaney’s car, destroy his radiator, and cause him to lose all water pressure.

While the contact made Blaney spin into turn one and dropped him all the way down to a 35th-place finish, Josh Berry went on to finish 7th in stage two and secured a fourth-place finish at the Martinsville outing.

Although Berry claimed that the first contact was intense, he managed to keep his momentum going despite the contact and had a solid run in his final Martinsville campaign with Wood Brothers Racing before his move to Legacy Motor Club in 2027.

Martinsville Mayhem strikes Team Penske’s title hopes as Blaney and Logano’s Chase hunt comes to an end

Coming off the back of a difficult Talladega weekend where both Team Penske drivers were caught up in the ‘Big One’ during stages two and three that struck a blow to their championship hopes, Martinsville was their final chance to fight back for the title win.

But Ryan Blaney’s contact with Josh Berry and Joey Logano‘s pit stop, followed by contact with Christopher Bell, saw their title contention come to a disastrous end.

While both Team Penske drivers have a consistent performance record at the venue, the duo could not capitalize on their strengths due to an overall poor race execution by the team despite running in competitive positions early on.

Logano finished the race in 18th position, after a tough day at the office ended his Chase hunt. On the other side of the garage, Blaney was hoping to maximize his run and was happy to go out chasing the field with the new short-track racing package and Goodyear tires; however, his run ended before he could battle it out at the front of the grid.

Martinsville has held great significance in Josh Berry’s NASCAR Cup Series career and in Wood Brothers Racing’s legacy. Berry’s most life-changing victory was at the 2019 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 late-model stock car race at Martinsville, followed by his 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series race win at Martinsville with JR Motorsports, co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

For Wood Brothers Racing, the venue is the team’s home turf. The team’s historic headquarters is just 30 miles from the Martinsville Speedway and has a deeply rooted racing legacy in Stuart, Virginia. Glen Wood, the team’s founder, had his very first NASCAR Cup Series start at the very venue in the 1950s.

These connections and historic ties with the venue make Martinsville Speedway an important chapter in Josh Berry’s racing career and for the Wood Brothers Racing team. And although his fourth-place finish may have come with some Mayhem, the No. 21 driver was happy to secure the finish for his last outing at the venue with the locally rooted team.

“Yeah, I know, I mean it was really fun,” said Berry as he wrapped up his weekend. “The car was really solid all day. Just needed a little bit of track position, just needed to you know get up to get up to the front a little bit sooner but, overall the car was really solid. Just want to thank these guys so much, everybody at Wood Brothers…just glad to have another good run.”

While William Byron swept all three stage wins in Martinsville, the championship contenders club for the 2026 Chase lost four out of seven drivers heading into the final race of the season.

Kyle Larson will have to wait until the final outing of the Chase season to secure his crown, as Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell remain in contention.