Berry Goes One for Two, Mosack Hits Bad Luck in Hickory LMs

Photo courtesy of Sherri Stearns

JR Motorsports | 7/27/2020

All Things Automotive Connor Mosack IFS Josh Berry Late Model News Nic Tailor

Josh Berry won another Late Model race at Hickory Motor Speedway, while Connor Mosack ran into bad racing luck twice in the course of Saturday's events.

Track Specs: .363-mile oval / Twin 40-lap features
Berry’s Race 1 finish: 1st
Berry’s Race 2 finish: 2nd
Mosack’s Race 1 finish: 16th
Mosack’s Race 2 finish: 18th    

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (July 27, 2020) – In what has become a theme, Josh Berry won the first 40-lap Late Model feature on Saturday night at Hickory Motor Speedway. In a twist, he finished second in the second of the 40-lap races. Teammate Connor Mosack had speed, but racing luck was hard to come by in the combined features.

As he did last week, Berry won the pole in qualifying and led all 40 laps in his No. 88 All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet to win the first feature over Ryan Millington. In the second, Berry again had to start ninth thanks to the inversion of the first race’s finishing order. After using up his tires too much over the second 40-lapper last week, Berry made changes for this week to alleviate his tire wear and caught up to Millington at the halfway point, finishing a very close second at the final checkered flag.

Continuing his run of dominance at Hickory, Berry has now won seven of the last 10 features he’s run at Hickory this season and notched his 33rd career victory on the .363-mile oval for JR Motorsports.

Mosack, driver of the No. 8 Nic Tailor/IFS Chevrolet for JRM, had a good day on Friday during practice, saying his Chevrolet was the best it had been all season. On Saturday in qualifying, on a hot and slick track, Mosack had to contend with Mother Nature. Rain started to fall a few cars ahead of Mosack in the qualifying line, and by the time he was one car away the track was actively wet. The young Charlotte driver was out on the track when qualifying was halted, and was first to go out when track-drying was complete. The result was an 18th-place start. Despite having a car with good balance and speed, Mosack was unable to make up much ground and finished 16th in the first feature.

Lining up 16th for the second main, Mosack was looking forward to improving his finish. When the green flag waved, the car running to his outside came down the track into the side of Mosack’s No. 8. The impact sent Mosack sliding across the grass and up into the path of the field in Turn 3. Contact from another car in his right front wrecked the suspension and he was done for the night in 18th place.

Mosack will compete in Saturday’s CARS Racing Tour event at Hickory, while Berry will race at Dominion Raceway in Virginia the same evening.

Josh Berry, driver No. 88 All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet team

“We had a really good car in the first race to win from the pole.  I feel like we made some good changes and had a chance at the second one, but we had a little contact coming through the field that hurt the car a little bit.  We just needed a little bit more drive off the corner to complete the pass.”

Connor Mosack, driver No. 8 Nic Tailor/IFS Chevrolet team

“Overall, it was a really rough weekend for us and the Nic Tailor/IFS Chevrolet. It was just a lot of bad luck coupled with not much speed in the race. We will figure out what is wrong and be ready to go for the CARS Tour race this weekend at Hickory.”

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