Track Specs: Greenville-Pickens Speedway, .500-mile oval/200 laps
Berry’s finish: 1st
Mosack’s finish: 10th
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 26, 2020) – With the week Josh Berry just had, one would think it couldn’t get any better.
One would be wrong.
Berry, newly crowned as the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion and with a part-time ride next season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports, won Saturday night’s CARS Tour $30,000-to-win Old North State Nationals at historic Greenville-Pickens Speedway, capping off a 27-win season. Teammate Connor Mosack, who entered the season-ending event fifth in CARS LMSC points, raced to a top-10 finish in just his second start ever at the famed bullring.
Berry, driving the familiar All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet (wearing the No. 8 rather than his usual No. 88), earned the pole for the 200-lap event, but gave way to Deac McCaskill at the initial green and rode in second for a time before Layne Riggs used the high side to pass both and take the lead. At about the 50-lap mark, Berry moved on Riggs for the lead, but soon settled into a comfortable second.
When the competition caution waved at lap 68, Berry pitted for fuel only (race rules dictated drivers could take tires or fuel, not both, on the same stop) and used the restart from fourth place to power past Peyton Sellers and Chad McCumbee for the lead. He held it until the caution waved again, triggering a group including Riggs to head to pit road for tires. Berry stayed out and resumed the lead, which he would hold until rain began to fall with 52 laps remaining.
At that point, Berry came to pit road for his tires, lining up eighth as the first car on fresh rubber. Once the green flag was displayed again, Berry needed just 10 laps to reel in the seven cars ahead of him and passed Riggs to resume the top spot at lap 162. Berry led the rest of the way to earn his 27th victory of the season in just 40 starts and the $30,000 winner’s paycheck.
For Berry, the 2016 owner’s champion and 2017 driver’s champion, it was his first action with the CARS Tour since June 6 following a dust-up with two-time champion Bobby McCarty at Ace Speedway in North Carolina which saw him assessed a one-race suspension. That led to the Tennessee native pursuing the NASCAR Weekly Series championship, which he won by a comfortable margin.
The triumph was Berry’s CARS-record 19th and extended his edge to 11 over McCarty. Berry also added to his series-leading totals in other CARS categories, including poles, top-five finishes, races and laps led, average start and money won.
Mosack, in his No. 88m Nic Tailor Underwear/IFS Chevrolet, started the race from 18th position after a battle in his heat to transfer to the main event. Needing to finish fifth to transfer to the 32-car field for the 200-lapper, the Charlotte native clashed with Jeremy Burns late in the heat and got sent to the back, but used the high line to get back around Burns and into the top five at the checkered flag.
Starting 18th, Mosack spent the first half of the 200-lap event saving tires and ran around 18th most of that time. At halfway, team manager Bryan Shaffer called him to pit road for right-side tires and the High Point University student started moving toward the front. He was seventh for the restart with 52 laps remaining, but the transmission on his Chevrolet turned balky and he could not get the selector into fourth gear. A quick trip to pit road fixed the problem, but it put Mosack 18th again in the lineup, behind cars with fresher tires.
Over the remaining laps, Mosack put his head down and got back into the top 10 in good order, showing plenty of speed. He was ninth with two laps remaining, battling ahead of Austin Somero, but Somero nudged him out of the preferred line to take the position in the final corner. That left Mosack with 10th at the flag, his eighth top-10 result in 10 CARS Tour LMSC events this season.
Berry won over Corey Heim, Riggs, McCaskill and Jonathan Findley. McCarty was sixth, with Nolan Pope, McCumbee, Somero and Mosack rounding out the top 10. Jared Fryar ended up winning the CARS Tour LMSC championship by a single point over Riggs despite finishing a lap down in 13th.
Josh Berry, driver No. 88 All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet team
“Early in the race, we were able to save some tires, but also hold our track position which was key. The lap-100 caution...I was pretty surprised how many cars pitted there, so that did make me a little nervous. I just felt like the race would come down to tires at the end, and I wanted to put them on as late as we could. In the end, the All Things Automotive/iRacing Chevrolet was great again, and we had the right strategy. This week has just been unbelievable for me and to cap it off with this win is truly special. I just want to thank all our guys for working so hard all year and bringing fast race cars."
Connor Mosack, driver No. 88m Nic Tailor Underwear/IFS Chevrolet team
“We had a little bit of bad luck in the race, but we had one of the fastest Nic Tailor Underwear/IFS Chevrolets we’ve had all year. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the finish to show for it, but overall I feel like we still had a good race. I’ve really enjoyed my year this year running the CARS Tour with JR Motorsports and want to give a huge thanks to both Bryan and Josh and everyone else on the team for everything they’ve done for me this year.”