Josh Berry found early trouble for the second consecutive week in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, crunching the outside wall after contact with Chase Elliott’s car at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and imperiling his playoff hopes.
Berry was running 15th in the 35th of 240 laps in the Enjoy Illinois 300 when his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was bumped in Turn 1 by the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Elliott. Berry scraped the left side of his car against the SAFER barrier, and he limped back to the Cup Series garage with significant damage.
Berry was evaluated and released from the infield care center, but the team was unable to repair the vehicle, ending his day prematurely. He will open the playoffs with two straight last-place results.
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Berry was in the middle of a three-wide jam with fellow Ford driver Joey Logano to his outside when Elliott looked to the low side entering the first turn.
“It looked like Chase just made a late move and got a little loose and was just enough to slide up into us,” said Berry, who subbed in the No. 9 Chevy for five races when Elliott suffered a snowboarding injury early in the 2023 season. “I don‘t think it was anything intentional by no means. Just an unfortunate scenario, I guess.”
Elliott drove on to finish third, marking his first top-five result in an eight-race span. He opened his post-race interview with USA Network’s crew by expressing remorse for the incident that derailed Berry’s day.
“First off, just want to apologize to Josh and the 21 team,” Elliott said. “I had no intention of getting into him. You know, I’ve known those guys my whole life, so I just hope that they at least know it wasn’t anything intentional, and I’ve known Josh for a long time, too. So just want to make sure those guys know that I feel terrible about that. Felt terrible about it right when it happened, and wish I could take it back. But yeah, unfortunately that transpired, but beyond that, really proud of our effort.”
Berry — who reached the playoffs by winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March — also crashed on the first lap of last week’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, finishing last in the 38-car field. The pitfall knocked him to the bottom of the Cup Series Playoffs standings and in danger of elimination with one race left in the opening Round of 16.
That playoff fate will be decided in Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, HBO Max) at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the bottom four drivers in the postseason picture will be knocked from championship eligibility. He remains last among the 16 playoff drivers, staring down a 45-point deficit below the elimination line.
“We’ve got no choice,” said Berry, when asked if he could rebound to keep his title aims intact. “It’s been a rough couple weeks, for sure, but I know these guys are working really hard and just gotta do the best you can next week.”
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