Remember a few days back when someone around here (ahem) suggested longshot winners were much more possible on the Las Vegas Strip than the Las Vegas Motor Speedway?
What? You already forgot about that?
Great, let’s move along.
No, nobody saw a Josh Berry win coming Sunday. Just to be sure, a look back at the pre-weekend Hard Rock odds showed Berry smack-dab in the middle of the odds board — 18th in a 36-man field. The payoff was at +7500, meaning a little $10 bet would netted you $750.
Hell, a wrinkled buck would’ve brought you $75. Sign me up for that transaction every day and, obviously, twice on Sundays.
Let’s ease off the clutch and get up to speed to figure this out and, along the way, touch on headier issues. That’s right. We’re going back to court.
First Gear: Wood Brothers have a history with this sort of thing
Since their glory days with David Pearson in the 1970s, and some good years with Neil Bonnett in the early ’80s, Wood Brothers Racing has alternated between launching pad and something of a retirement ramp.
Young Elliott Sadler and Ryan Blaney, youngish Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip, and off-rampers Bill Elliott and Ricky Rudd all took turns at the wheel.
A wide variety of NASCAR racers have pedaled the No. 21 Ford, and yes, it’s always been a Ford. Once an off-Broadway shop way off the beaten path in Virginia, the team eventually caved to necessity and moved to Charlotte, and in recent years has basically bunked under Roger Penske’s tent.
“Technical alliance” is how these things are described.
Up to speed? Good. Enter Josh Berry. Before Sunday, you might’ve known him as “that dude who went to high school with Taylor Swift.” But in racing circles (and ovals), he might fit between the those types of racers who previously wore the Wood Brothers’ red-and-white, and here’s why …
Second Gear: Josh Berry is more than Taylor Swift’s old classmate
After a largely unproductive season with the soon-shuttering Stewart-Haas Racing last year, Berry is now in just his second full-time season of Cup Series racing. Yet he’s no kid, but a 34-year-old with quite a racing portfolio — most of which you’ve never seen.
His highest-profile racing was three Xfinity Series seasons (2021-23) with Junior Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports, where he won five times in 88 starts and finished fourth in the ’22 championship.
But where he really muscled up was on the CARS Late Model Stock series (the most recent name given to what began as the Hooters Pro Cup in the ’90s). There, where he first raced out of the JR Motorsports shop, he collected trophies with stunning regularity — 22 wins in 56 starts between 2015-22.
Interesting side note about those CARS days with Team Junior. When you drive for JRM at that level, you only have a couple of full-time crew members, so the driver has to help work on the cars throughout the week. Which leads us to Berry’s post-victory burnout session at Vegas.
There wasn’t much of one. Just a couple of loud and somewhat smoky donuts. Full-blown, tire-melting burnouts — let’s face it, we’re over them — can do serious damage to a race car, and Berry has now gone public with his respect for those who have to fix such things, largely because he was one of them, and not too long ago.
Or, as he elegantly explained: “… Got my ass chewed a couple times for doing burnouts when I shouldn’t and tore stuff up.”
Hopefully more will follow his lead. Then we go to work on the idiots who blast the foghorns after hockey goals.
Third Gear: NASCAR viewers still mad because for some, CW stands for Can’t Watch
Defending Xfinity Series champ Justin Allgaier got his first win of the season at Las Vegas.
Allgaier led over the half of the 200 laps, including the last 49, and finished several car lengths in front of runner-up Aric Almirola. In other words, not a ton of late-race drama, and good thing, because a lot of people missed it.
Again.
This the CW network’s first full season of Xfinity coverage, and the network continues to alienate those who thought the CW’s full coverage of Xfinity meant FULL coverage. Turns out, unlike the major networks, the CW gives certain independence to its nation of affiliates, which is why, for instance, an affiliate can opt to broadcast a spring training ballgame instead of the Vegas race.
Plenty to work out, it seems. But unless they rewrite their entire affiliate agreements, and therefore change the company’s entire business structure, there’s no answer to that problem.
Fourth Gear: Lawyers fatten up in 23XI, Front Row, NASCAR case
Anyone keeping track of these billable legal hours?
You bet your tangible assets they are.
“You sued me, so I’m suing you right back.”
“Oh yeah? Well I’m a-gonna double-dog sue you back.”
And so it goes with the ongoing antitrust suit involving NASCAR and two Cup teams — 23XI and Front Row. An injunction last December granted the teams use of their charters for the 2025 season. NASCAR appealed the injunction.
Last week, the teams filed an official response to NASCAR’s appeal of the injunction. A hearing for all of the above is scheduled for May 9 in Richmond, and suddenly, the great Gomez Addams comes to mind.
Gomez, of course, was the patriarch of the Addams Family but also an occasionally practicing attorney. In one episode, the family is defending itself in court with Gomez handling that defense. As the predictable mayhem ensues and the judge loses control, Gomez blurts out the greatest line in the history of American jurisprudence.
“And one more thing, Your Honor. No matter the verdict, we WILL appeal!”
We’re not at that stage yet, but we’re closing the gap.
Bonus Gear: Did you see that flyover?
OK, true, the Next Gen cars do have five gears and we should probably have five here on a weekly basis. But some of us are old H-pattern, four-gear holdouts.
But some things call for a fifth gear, and this week it’s courtesy of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, who used a nearby mountain range to enhance the visual. Goodness gracious.
— Email Ken Willis at [email protected]
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