Track Specs: Hickory Motor Speedway, .363-mile oval / Twin 40-lap features; Tri-County Speedway, .400-mile oval
Berry’s Race 1 finish: 1st
Berry’s Race 2 finish: 3rd
Mosack’s finish: 4th
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 20, 2020) – In a rare weekend double feature at different tracks, the JR Motorsports Late Model team earned a victory and two top-four finishes. Josh Berry won the first of two 40-lap features at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday night and Connor Mosack finished fourth in a 60-lap feature on Friday night at Tri-County Speedway. Both tracks are in North Carolina.
Berry, who is an acknowledged master of Hickory’s .363-mile oval, won the first 40-lapper from the pole after setting fast time in qualifying. The Tennessee native held off track regular Ryan Millington to win the first race, just as he did a week ago. The field inverted the top nine finishers for the second 40-lapper, and Berry, in a virtual repeat of last week’s race at HMS, came through the field to third place at the finish.
As it was last week, Berry did not have enough tire left for the second 40-lapper and as a result, Ryan Millington was able to hold the lead. Sam Butler finished ahead of Berry at the checkered. Since the pandemic shuffled the racing calendar, Berry has won six of eight features at Hickory, and now has 32 triumphs at the track for JRM.
On Friday night at Tri-County, Mosack got acquainted with the .400-mile oval in his No. 8 Nic Tailor/IFS Chevrolet. Despite a loose condition in practice, Mosack qualified seventh fastest for his first feature at the track with a car that was very quick on the short run. Once the race started, the cars spread out to single-file racing and Mosack was moving forward. Fifteen laps in, Mosack moved to the middle groove to help his loose condition and started to advance even faster.
Near the halfway point, Mosack had caught the tail end of the top five when the caution waved. Restarting sixth, the young Charlotte driver immediately got to the top five with an outside pass and set his sights on fourth place. One lap later, with Mosack still on the outside, the third-place car slipped up and Mosack filled the hole only to find out there wasn’t room to make the pass. He got squeezed between cars in the middle of the track and the outside car slapped the wall, bringing out the caution.
In fourth place with five laps remaining, Mosack restarted on the inside line and raced side-by-side for third until the checkered waved, but was unable to complete the pass. He finished fourth on the night.
Josh Berry, driver No. 88 All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet team
“We had a great lap in qualifying and were really fast in the first race. We just need to work on making the All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet last a little better for the end of these twins now that it is so hot and slick out. We have some good ideas and should be able to get it better.”
Connor Mosack, driver No. 8 Nic Tailor/IFS Chevrolet team
“I was happy with how we ran in the race, we were able to move around and find speed and I liked that you have to search around some for grip. We just needed to have started closer to the front to have taken full advantage of the speed and be in contention for the win. I learned a lot in my first race at Tri-County, and am looking forward to going back.”