Track Specs: Hickory Motor Speedway, .363-mile oval/Twin 40-lap features; Southern National Motorsports Park, .400-mile oval/Twin 40-lap features; Langley Speedway, .395-mile oval/125-lap feature
Berry’s Race 1-4 finish: 1st
Mosack’s finish: 8th
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 31, 2020) – Josh Berry’s pursuit of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series championship got a huge boost over the weekend as the JR Motorsports star won all four races he entered and outdueled his chief rival for the national championship in the bargain. Teammate Connor Mosack drove to a solid eighth-place finish in the CARS Late Model Stock Car Series event at Virginia’s Langley Speedway, keeping the series title battle with Jared Fryar close in the process.
As has been his habit of late, Berry took his No. 88 All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet to Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway for twin 40-lap events on Saturday night. As he has the past several weeks, he qualified on the pole for the first race, and despite losing the lead to Jake Crum for the first 12 laps, ended up posting the victory over rookie Sam Butler.
The inversion of the finishing order for the second race put him ninth for the start, and Berry needed less than half the 40 laps to resume command at the front of the field. Despite a caution flag with 10 laps remaining, Berry raced away from Trevor Ward and Ryan Millington to earn the victory. The triumphs were the 10th and 11th of the season on the .363-mile oval.
On Sunday, Berry traveled to Southern National Motorsports Park for twin 40-lap events, and the script played out the same way it did the night before. Berry put his Chevrolet on the pole and led all 40 laps to win the first race over Mason Diaz, then started 10th in the second 40-lapper. It took some time to work his way through the field in the second event. Berry took third place with around 10 laps remaining and then passed Bradley McCaskill for the lead with three to go for the victory.
The four victories pushed his season total to 15 and more importantly, the Tennessee driver won two races head-to-head with Millington, with whom he is battling for the Division 1 NAAP Weekly Series title. Millington, as of Aug. 25, held a 16-point lead over Berry in the standings.
Mosack, the young Charlotte driver flying JRM’s flag in the CARS Tour, had a solid night on Saturday at Langley (Va.) Speedway, which resulted in his sixth top-10 finish in seven starts this season. It also kept the pressure on in the points, as Fryar finished third. Heading into the event, Fryar led Mosack by just 16 points.
After a bobble at the exit of Turn 2 in qualifying, Mosack’s No. 88 Nic Tailor Underwear/IFS Chevrolet slotted in 19th for the start of the 125-lap event on Langley’s .395-mile oval. Mosack had to work out a loose condition in practice, but changes made by team manager Bryan Shaffer and the team had the young driver in good shape for qualifying.
At the start of the 125-lapper, Mosack started to move up immediately despite having to conserve his tires for the later laps. By the time the competition caution waved at lap 40, Mosack was 15th, and in another 40 laps he had cracked the top 10 with a head of steam. He continued his march forward, advancing to seventh place before the car’s handling started to tighten up.
Over the remaining laps, the tight condition grew worse and the tires started to wear, and Mosack lost seventh with a few laps to go. He eventually finished eighth. In his seven CARS Tour starts this season, Mosack has a pair of top-fives to go with four top-10s, just the kind of steady performance that results in a chance at the series championship.
Mosack has a couple of weeks off from CARS Tour competition, returning on Sept. 12 at Carteret County Speedway for a 125-lap LMSC event. This weekend, both drivers will be at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
Josh Berry, driver No. 88 All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet team
“When we decided to run all four of these races, I thought a realistic success would be to win two of them. It was pretty amazing that we were able to win all four. We had been struggling a little bit in the second race at Hickory as of late, but we were able to turn that around and get both of them. We came home, unloaded that car, and loaded another one up and went to Southern National and had a great car there as well. The second race was pretty tough after drawing a 10 invert. Southern National is a bottom groove track and tough to pass on, but we were able to get the lead with just a few laps to go. I just need to thank all of our guys, All Things Automotive, and iRacing for their support. We have been going at this pretty hard the last few months, and the results are paying off.”
Connor Mosack, driver No. 88 Nic Tailor Underwear/IFS Chevrolet team
“I think we had a top-five car this weekend at Langley, but our Nic Tailor Underwear/IFS Chevrolet just started too far back to be able to make the most of it. I bobbled off Turn 2 in qualifying, which put us back there, but we started to make up ground immediately. We were just too tight at the end of the race, and had nothing left on the tires to keep moving forward.”