Josh Berry leads Xfinity sweep for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team
For the second consecutive day, a nonplayoff driver showed his teammates the fast way around Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Part-time racer Josh Berry powered past Justin Allgaier with 17 laps left to lead a 1-2-3 JR Motorsports sweep Saturday of the Alsco Uniforms 302 NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff opener.
Berry’s victory followed a similar performance by fellow nonplayoff driver Christian Eckes, who paced a 1-2-3-4 unprecedented finish by ThorSport Racing drivers in Friday’s Truck Series race.
Las Vegas’ Noah Gragson finished third Saturday despite being sent to the rear of the lead lap twice after pit stop infractions.
“It was frustrating for me, but the top three were Junior Motorsports cars, so awesome run by everybody,” Gragson said of the team headed by former NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. “Not proud of my mistakes tonight. But top three, I’ll take it.”
Berry, who won one race in 19 starts for the team per his sponsorship plan, was subbing for the No. 1 car’s regular driver, Michael Annett, who suffered a stress fracture in his leg during a July race in New Hampshire. Berry led 38 of the 201 laps and crossed the finish line 4.398 seconds ahead of Allgaier.
Big wreck takes out Herbst
A multicar melee on lap 32 eliminated three of the 12 Xfinity playoff drivers, including Las Vegan Riley Herbst.
A five-wide gaggle of cars went into the first turn triggering the carnage that involved 12 cars and also knocked out playoff contenders Jeb Burton and Jeremy Clements.
“Four-wide, five wide always doesn’t work at Las Vegas Motor Speedway,” Herbst said after his crumpled No. 98 South Point Ford was pushed behind the wall. “Really disappointing.”
Matt Jaskol, the other Las Vegas driver in the race, finished 27th after skydiving onto the starting grid during the prerace ceremonies.
Milestone for Kurt Busch
He’s out of contention for his second Cup Series championship, but Las Vegan Kurt Busch will have a lot to race for in Sunday’s South Point 400.
Not only is he the defending champion, but Sunday’s start will be the 43-year-old’s 750th in the Cup Series.
“Twenty plus years in the NASCAR Cup Series. To have been able to compete at this level with some of the best teams in the sport and against the level of competition is such a privilege,” said Busch, who last week moved past Sterling Marlin into 12th place in career starts.
“It is like aging; the years seem to go faster. It seems like 700 starts was just a few weeks ago.”
Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.
