CUP: Josh Berry takes 2025 LASTCAR lead after sweeping all three last-place finishes in the “Round of 16”

Sep 14

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

Josh Berry picked up the 5th last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway when his #21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford experienced a fire - which was categorized as a “brake” issue - after 75 of 500 laps.

The finish, which came in Berry’s 77th series start, was his third of the season and third in a row. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 26th for the #21, the 82nd due to the brakes, and the 764th for Ford. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 43rd for the #21, the 175th for brakes, and the 1,077th for Ford.

With the finish, Berry has now taken the lead in the 2025 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship from Riley Herbst with seven races to go. Incidentally, Herbst took home 18th on Saturday, his best finish since a 17th on the Chicago Street Course.

After scoring back-to-back last-place finishes for the Wood Brothers for the first time in the team’s history, Berry found himself in a “must-win” situation to advance to the “Round of 12,” a full 45 points below the cutline. To date, the Wood Brothers have only once won at Bristol, and not since March 25, 2001, when Elliott Sadler nabbed his first win. Berry, a Tennessee native and short track specialist for his background in late models, has twice finished 12th in a Cup race at Bristol, including 25 laps led during the March 17, 2024 race marked by heavy tire wear.

With 39 drivers entered for 40 spots, Berry and the rest of the field were locked-into the show. Berry struggled in practice, ranking just 38th with a best lap of 15.709 seconds (122.147mph), then made a huge jump in qualifying to secure 10th on the grid with a lap of 15.214 seconds (126.121mph).

Securing the 39th and final starting spot was fellow Tennessee native Chad Finchum, whose #66 Barger Precast Ford was slowest in practice with a best lap of 15.870 seconds (120.907mph), then slowest in time trials at 16.054 seconds (119.522mph). No drivers were sent to the back for pre-race penalties, so Finchum remained at the tail end of the inside line as the green flag dropped. He crossed the stripe 3.762 seconds back of the lead, three-tenths back of 38th-place Corey Heim, the Truck Series championship leader running double-duty in 23XI Racing’s #67 Robinhood Toyota.

On the break, the field pulled away from Finchum by a few car lengths, putting Finchum 4.134 seconds back of the lead, three-tenths back of Heim. On Lap 2, Finchum made up the gap and rode the bumper of Ty Dillon’s #10 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet as both inched alongside Heim to his outside. Heim fought back in the high lane, keeping Finchum in last. But on Lap 4, Cody Ware’s #51 Arby’s Classic Ford dropped back in the middle of a now three-wide formation with Todd Gilliland’s #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford. Ware’s car blocked the path of Heim, who fell to last at the stripe. Heim then made it past Ware on Lap 5.

By Lap 9, Ware remained in last, 10.583 seconds back of the lead, and Finchum had clawed his way to 34th. Finchum then dropped back to 37th on Lap 17, and on Lap 19, Ware dropped Finchum back to last place. At that instant, the leaders caught both Finchum and Ware, putting both a lap down. Finchum radioed that his car was “tight – really tight in the middle,” and Finchum was told by his team he could no longer hold the bottom line.

Then on Lap 28, Ryan Preece made an unscheduled stop in his #60 Kroger / SToK Ford, there began a flurry of action on pit road as the tremendous tire wear of last year’s spring race suddenly returned. Preece’s stop dropped him to last on Lap 28, now two laps down. Next came Austin Dillon, who by Lap 34 was caught speeding in Section 1 after he too lost two laps for his pit stop. On Lap 41, Ware made a stop of his own, showing three laps down, and he dropped a fourth lap back by Lap 51. Finchum retook the spot on Lap 53, showing four laps down, then was five down after his stop on Lap 55. By Lap 62, Finchum was still in last, but Daniel Suarez dropped to 38th place, four laps down in his #99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet.

On Lap 74, Finchum was still five laps down in a tight-handling car, one lap back of Suarez, but was thrilled. “This is the most fun I've ever had at Bristol,” says Finchum. “Thank you, NASCAR. Thank you.”

As Finchum radioed his team, Berry was still on the lead lap, and hanging onto a strong 7th-place run. But soon he noticed smoke in the cockpit. Trying to hang on until his next stop, he stayed out until Lap 76, when he came down pit road with fire visibly burning in the rocker panel behind his right-front wheel. The on-board camera showed the car was rapidly filling with smoke. Coming down pit road, Berry’s crew was told to put out the fire before changing tires, but the crew still had right-side tires ready as Berry stopped. The driver had his arm against the window net, ready to bail out. Berry climbed out with help from his crew, and fire crews put out the flames. Frantically, the crew called for a caution, which didn’t fall until Lap 81. Berry reported flames didn’t enter the cockpit, but the smoke was so heavy he could barely see.

Berry took last on Lap 82 as the car was pushed behind the wall. NASCAR declared him out on Lap 96. Although the official in the garage radioed, “21 car out, fire,” and even though the fire occurred in the rocker panel, the official results showed “brakes” as the reason out. The same reason was used for 35th-place Finchum, who pitted for the same issue in the closing laps. Taking 38th was Chase Elliott, whose #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet wrecked in a stack-up on Lap 312 after he merged in front of a fast-closing John Hunter Nemechek in Turn 3. Elliott made it to pit road with heavy damage and a significant fluid leak. Daniel Suarez took 37th due to crash damage on his #99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet, the crew pushing his car directly back to the hauler. Completing the group was polesitter A.J. Allmendinger, whose steering was damaged on his #16 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet after a collision with Denny Hamlin.

Zane Smith fast all night, Heim charges to best Cup finish in part-time effort

Through all the chaos, Zane Smith was never far from the lead in his #38 Long John Silvers Ford and came home 3rd, marking his first top-five finish with Front Row Motorsports and the second-best run of his career, trailing only his runner-up to Joey Logano last year in Nashville. Smith also led twice for five laps – his first laps led since Atlanta in July – and was battling Carson Hocevar for the lead on the final restart before Bell made the winning pass.

Also surprising was Corey Heim, who rallied from 38th on the grid to finish 6th in the #67 Robinhood Toyota – the second-best finish by a Toyota behind only race winner Christopher Bell. The finish came in only Heim’s seventh series start and his fourth of the year, besting his previous mark of 13th in this year’s spring race at Kansas. In fact, it’s the best finish for the #67 in a Cup Series points-paying race since August 11, 1985, when Buddy Arrington finished 10th in the #67 Tom Prange Leasing Ford.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*While the #21 had never before finished last in a Cup Series race at Bristol, the Wood Brothers had – August 23, 1986, when Kyle Petty’s #7 7-Eleven Ford lost the engine after 9 laps of the Busch 500.

*While classified as “brakes,” this marks the third time since 2024 that the last-place finisher of a Cup Series race was eliminated due to fire – the other two were Ryan Preece’s door foam at Dover on April 28, 2024, and a spilled fuel ignition on Daniel Suarez at Daytona on August 24, 2024. It would have been the first time a driver has finished last in a Cup race at Bristol for that reason.

RECORD LAST-PLACE STREAKS

Next Sunday in Loudon, Berry could become the first driver in Cup Series history to finish last in four consecutive points-paying races. Only four other drivers reached this point, only to fall short:

Ryan Preece

#37 Chevrolet, JTG-Daugherty Racing

7/5/20 – Indianapolis – LPF #1, 14/161, crash

7/12/20 – Kentucky – LPF #2, 159/267, transmission

7/19/20 – Texas – LPF #3, 217/334, crash

7/23/20 – Kansas – Finished 34th out of 40

*Preece crashed hard on the backstretch after 181 laps, but by then, his teammate Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. finished last after 58 laps with electrical issues. This streak excluded the All-Star weekend, which occurred between Kentucky and Texas and did not see Preece finish last in the Open (where Bubba Wallace was last).

Max Papis

#13 Toyota, Germain Racing

6/13/10 – Michigan – LPF #1, 8/200, brakes

6/20/10 – Sonoma – LPF #2, 65/110, crash

6/27/10 – Loudon – LPF #3, 11/301, brakes

7/3/10 – Daytona – Finished 42nd out of 43

*Papis fell out after 6 laps with a vibration, but by then, Dave Blaney was out after 4 laps with transmission issues.

Dave Blaney

#66 Toyota, PRISM Motorsports

8/22/09 – Bristol – LPF #1, 8/500, crash

9/6/09 – Atlanta – LPF #2, 19/325, electrical

9/12/09 – Richmond – LPF #3, 36/400, brakes

9/20/09 – Loudon – Finished 42nd out of 43

*Blaney fell out after 23 laps with electrical issues, but by then, Tony Raines was out after 8 laps with overheating as the listed reason. One week before the streak started at Michigan, Blaney finished 42nd again and completed the same 18 laps as last-place finisher Bobby Labonte, who took the spot with a blown engine.

G.C. Spencer

#48 1958 Chevrolet, Weldon Wagner (owner)

8/18/60 – Columbia – LPF #1, 42/300, rear end

8/20/60 – South Boston – LPF #2, 22/150, rear end

8/23/60 – Bowman Gray – LPF #3, 62/200, sway bar

9/5/60 – Darlington – Finished 22nd out of 48

*Spencer got a ride with Spook Crawford for the Southern 500 and finished under power. Meanwhile, E.J. Trivette, who started last on the grid, made just one lap before handling woes ended his run.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

39) #21-Josh Berry / 75 laps / brakes (fire)

38) #9-Chase Elliott / 311 laps / crash

37) #99-Daniel Suarez / 364 laps / crash

36) #16-A.J. Allmendinger / 408 laps / steering

35) #66-Chad Finchum / 458 laps / brakes (fire)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

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

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (13)

2nd) Ford (9)

3rd) Toyota (6)

2025 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP