Josh Berry enters one of his best tracks of his NASCAR Cup Series career with his best finish since Daytona in his back pocket.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Josh Berry enters one of his best tracks of his NASCAR Cup Series career with his best finish since Daytona in his back pocket.
Berry finished 10th at Martinsville, which was his best finish since the season-opening Daytona 500 where he finished ninth. In between then, Berry had four finishes of 26th or worse before finishing 17th at Darlington and running well at Martinsville.
Heading to Bristol, Berry is confident in the No. 21 team's short track program.
“I feel like it’s been good. It was a strength of ours last year," Berry said. "I feel good about everything we’ve been doing this week to prepare for Bristol. It’s obviously a little different aero package and horsepower, so there’s gonna be some adapting for everybody to that package the best we can."
The cars will have 80 more horsepower, much less downforce and a tire compound that is expected to have consistent wear, no matter the temperature. The compound will mean teams can use sim time and practice to more accurately set up for the race but it's still unknown how it will affect the racing.
Berry is hesitant.
"I know we’ve got a little different tire, but it seems like the biggest sensitivity to it is definitely the track temperature and with the warmer temperatures this weekend I feel like the track is gonna take rubber and it’s gonna look normal. I don’t know that it will be a big change," Berry said.
That's good news for Berry, who qualified 11th in the spring and 10th in the fall last year.
"We finished 12th in the spring. We had a good car there and had a good car in the fall before we caught on fire, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going and have another solid day," Berry said.
What does Berry need to see in practice to feel good about the race.
“I feel like just having the stability to carry speed into the corners. Corner speeds are obviously really fast there and you have to be secure and stable to be able to roll the speed in the corner to make the lap time. That’s the biggest thing. It’s hard to drive the car there if it’s really on edge. You just have to go slower, so I think that’s the biggest thing we’re working on and looking forward to," Berry said.
Beyond Bristol, Berry said he is confident about the upcoming tracks coming up. It's somewhat of a surprise as the next six races include three on 1.5-mile intermediate tracks that have been a weak spot for the team since he won at Las Vegas last March.
This March at Las Vegas, Berry said they learned a lot from a test there to help them.
"I felt like we learned a lot through that. We got significantly faster, which was important. I was much happier with how the car drove by the end, so there were a lot of positives there and now it’s up to us to apply that to the different racetracks in a race weekend scenario and make the most of it," Berry said.
Berry sits 25th in points, 57 points below the Chase cutline, with 19 races until the Chase begins.