CUP: Josh Berry only the second driver to finish last at Darlington while still under power

Aug 31

by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Josh Berry picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway when his #21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford finished running, completing 239 of 367 laps.

The finish, which came in Berry’s 75th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since September 29, 2024 at Kansas, 33 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 24th for the #21, the 44th where the driver was still running, and the 762nd for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 41st for the #21, the 60th while running, and the 1,074th for Ford.

When Berry was last featured in a Cup Series on this site, he’d managed to escape a first-lap spin with only flat tires, but was eliminated under NASCAR’s “Damaged Vehicle Policy” when crews towed his car into the infield. Since then, both Berry’s career and that rule have changed. The Kansas incident occurred in the final weeks of a closing Stewart-Haas Racing, after which Berry stayed with Ford by replacing Harrison Burton at Wood Brothers Racing. At Las Vegas, just three races into this season, Berry scored a surprising win – the first of his career.

The Vegas win locked Berry into his first Playoffs, where after top-ten finishes in the last two races of the regular season, he’d make his 75th career start in the 75th anniversary running of the Southern 500 during this, the 75th anniversary of the Wood Brothers team itself. Darlington alone had been the site of eight of the Wood Brothers’ wins, most recently in 1981 with Neil Bonnett.

In practice, Berry ranked just 33rd of the 38 entrants with a best lap of 30.018 seconds (163.822mph), but he made a massive gain in qualifying with a lap of 28.829 seconds (170.578mph), just 0.135 second off the pole, good enough for 3rd on the grid. This was Berry’s 12th career top-five start and first at Darlington, where his previous best was 15th, and where he’d also crashed out of each of his previous two starts.

Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Timmy Hill, fresh off a strong 8th-place finish in Saturday’s Truck Series race at the Darlington track. Earlier this week, Hill’s #66 Ford for Garage 66 had only limited sponsorship from Coble Enterprises, but later gained backing from Skeletron.com, PW Roofing, and Jaguar Silencers. But car chief Reece Kilgore was ejected after the car twice failed inspection, and the team took Stall 40 on the Turn 4 side after they lost pit selection. No drivers were sent to the back for pre-race penalties, so Hill lined up outside the final row alongside Derek Kraus in the NY Racing Team’s #44 Urban Youth Racing School Chevrolet, a scheme last seen last year at Homestead.

When the green flag dropped, Hill was last across the stripe, 3.209 seconds back of the lead. Meanwhile, near the front, Berry was remained door-to-door on the inside of Tyler Reddick’s #45 Pinnacle Toyota, both directly behind front row starters Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe. Near the exit of Turn 2, Berry’s car bottomed out three times, then snapped loose, skating into Reddick, who barely maintained control with a big tire mark in the door from Berry’s right-rear tire. Berry then spun back across the track in front of nearly the entire field, where somehow everyone missed colliding with him. A few bumped into each other, and Kyle Busch spun his #8 Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet. At the tail end, Kraus locked his brakes to avoid piling in, and Hill was already trailing the field by open track when he came off Turn 2.

Under the ensuing caution, first Busch and then Berry got rolling again with Berry making it to the pits at Stall 13 past the starting line. The crew looked under the hood, then sent him back out on Lap 3, showing one lap down. But Berry remarked his steering was “upside down” and something was moving around in the car. He returned to the pits, ultimately completing two laps before he pulled into the garage past Stall 8 on the Turn 1 side. There, in the “DVP” zone, the crew raised the hood and set to work. On top of the steering issue, the car had heavy damage to the left side, including the left-rear corner. On Lap 27, Berry’s crew finally saw what happened when they watched footage from Ross Chastain’s on-board camera.

Back on track, the now 37th-place Hill lost a lap heading into Turn 3 on Lap 33, followed soon by Kraus in 36th. By Lap 59, Hill was two laps down, then three down on Lap 73 and four down on Lap 103. In the garage, Berry’s crew lowered the hood on Lap 111, raised it again on Lap 113, then lowered it once more on Lap 121. By then, Berry was testing the brakes as the crew jacked up the left side once more. They told him to fire the engine and “see what we’ve got balance-wise.” With that, on Lap 122, Berry rolled back out of the garage and onto the track, 119 laps down. This was shortly after the restart to begin Stage 2, after which Berry cleared minimum speed (34.05 seconds) on Lap 124.

Over the next several laps, Berry and crew strived to earn the one bonus point for fastest lap of the race. By Lap 151, he was told he was running the same pace as drivers in the Top 15. He ultimately turned the fastest lap on his 114th lap around the track, approximately on Lap 239.

When the next caution fell one lap later for Carson Hocevar’s spin in the #77 Chili’s Ride the ‘Dente Chevrolet, Berry reported his steering was still about a quarter-turn off. Shortly after the restart on Lap 162, Berry reported something felt loose on the car, and he made a stop under green on Lap 164. The crew looked under the hood once more, then completed a four-tire stop. He incurred a penalty for too many crew members over the wall, forcing a pass-through which now left him 124 laps down.

The garage remained empty until Lap 204, when Cody Ware’s #51 Parts Plus Ford spun off Turn 2 after contact from Ryan Preece’s #60 Trimble Ford. Ware’s right-front struck the outside wall before he spun to the inside, leaving him with at least a flat left-rear tire. Unable to drive back to pit road, the tow truck arrived, and Ware said the crew was trying to tell him to climb out. Ware told them to tow him back, and while they ultimately hooked up the car to tow it backwards, they dropped it off in the garage. Ware’s crew hustled to the scene to change tires, only to find a right-rear toe link was bent, requiring further repairs. Already five laps down, Ware waited as the crew completed the fix, and he returned to the track ten laps down in 37th. As with Berry, he cleared minimum speed. But on Lap 261, Ware apparently cut down a right-front tire and speared the wall in Turn 3. The impact point was past pit entrance, so he limped along the apron and made it to his stall. There, the crew discovered he’d broken an upper control arm, and directed him back to the DVP zone behind the wall. On Lap 271, NASCAR reported Ware was the first driver out, citing suspension issues.

By the time Ware was declared out, Berry had all but secured the last spot. On Lap 273, there were 94 laps remaining, and Berry was still 103 laps behind Ware. If nothing else changed and the race finished at its scheduled distance, Berry would close to within nine laps of Ware, but no further.

With 85 to go, Kraus went behind the wall after the crew called for a battery change. This was done with 69 to go, by which point the #44 was running in 36th, 30 laps down. With 54 to go, Kraus was running by himself when the engine note changed off Turn 4. He pulled to the inside of Turn 1, when a crew member said, “Take it to the garage – I’m done with this shit.” But the car started smoking from behind both front wheels, and fire appeared under the fenders. Kraus asked where he should pull in, but the team told him to stop and get out. He was then told to pull up to a fire truck, but by then, he’d climbed out. The fire had spread to the left-front fender, and smoke poured from both sides of the car. Kraus walked away without injury while crews extinguished the flames.

Berry remained on track for the rest of the race, losing one more lap in the process. This put him 128 laps down at the finish, ten laps behind Ware, with Kraus another 33 laps ahead in 36th. Hill finished 35th, losing 13 laps by the checkered flag. Taking 34th was Ty Dillon, whose #10 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet finished two laps down after losing ground during the first round of green-flag stops in Stage 1.

No one bested Berry’s fastest lap by the finish, which combined with bad luck for other Playoff drivers kept Berry within 19 points of the cutoff line heading into Gateway next Sunday.

Legacy Motor Club has their best night yet

While Chase Briscoe dominated the event, leading 309 of 367 laps, the underdog story of the evening belonged to Legacy Motor Club. After several races where both its drivers have shown marked improvement in 2025, two-time Southern 500 winner Erik Jones in the #43 Dollar Tree Toyota finished 3rd in Stage 2 and 3rd at the finish, having battled the leaders during much of the final green-flag run. Right behind Jones in 4th was teammate John Hunter Nemechek in the #42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota, marking Nemechek’s new career-best for a second time in 2025. Nemechek also racked up stage points, finishing 9th in Stage 1 and 8th in Stage 2, and he led twice for 15 laps.

Also impressive on Sunday was A.J. Allmendinger, who finished 5th in the #16 Black’s Tire Chevrolet, then celebrated with special guests of Black’s Tire right after the race. In 14 previous Cup starts at Darlington with five different teams dating back to 2007, Allmendinger had never finished better than 13th, which came just two years ago.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This was the first last-place finish for the #21 in a Cup Series race at Darlington since September 1, 1985, when David Pearson’s #21 Chattanooga Chew Chevrolet lost the engine after 17 laps of the Southern 500. That car was fielded by Pearson’s own team.

*The Wood Brothers haven’t finished last in a Cup race at Darlington since April 13, 1980, when Neil Bonnett’s #21 Purolator Mercury was collected in a six-car accident on the opening lap of the CRC Chemicals Rebel 500. The team’s only other last-place run at Darlington came on September 4, 1967, when Cale Yarborough’s 1967 Ford lost the engine after 3 laps of the Southern 500.

*This marked only the second time that the last-place finisher of a Cup race at Darlington finished under power. The only other occurrence was on March 21, 1999, in the rain-shortened TranSouth Financial 400, where Ken Schrader’s #33 Skoal Chevrolet was involved in a three-car accident on Lap 3, then returned to finish 89 laps down. That race also had nearly the entire field finish under power after 164 laps until Kenny Irwin, Jr. and Ricky Craven wrecked out just before the rain came.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #21-Josh Berry / 239 laps / running

37) #51-Cody Ware / 249 laps / suspension

36) #44-Derek Kraus / 282 laps / mechanical

35) #66-Timmy Hill / 354 laps / running

34) #10-Ty Dillon / 365 laps / running

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) 23XI Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, Kaulig Racing, Trackhouse Racing (3)

2nd) Garage 66, Legacy Motor Club, Penske Racing (2)

3rd) Front Row Motorsports, Hyak Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, NY Racing Team, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing, Spire Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing (1)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (13)

2nd) Ford (8)

3rd) Toyota (6)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP