Berry hits bad luck again, ending playoff run at Bristol

The disastrous playoff run for Josh Berry and Wood Brothers Racing came to an abrupt end Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway after the car caught on fire in the first stage.

Berry believes it was tire rubber accumulating from the excess tire wear that caused the fire, or a tire cord got caught in a brake rotor. He drove the car to pit road, but the smoke quickly turned to flames, and he was helped from the car before suffering any injuries. For the third consecutive week, Berry was the first driver out of the race and will be credited with a last-place finish.

“I don’t think the fire made it inside the cockpit,” Berry said. “It was just a lot of smoke. It seemed like the fire stayed in the fender well, which is a good thing, but it’s just disappointing again. The car was really good. That was going to fall right into our wheelhouse, I feel like, to have a really good night. 

“We were able to make it pretty long on that first set, and we were going to be set up in a really good spot. This one is going to be hard to watch because that looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

A third straight DNF eliminated Berry from the postseason. He entered the weekend last on the playoff grid and likely needed a victory to advance. A victory in March earned the No. 21 team a spot in the postseason.

The first lap of the first race in the round had Berry fighting from behind. A setup issue at Darlington Raceway, where he qualified third, resulted in a crash on lap one in Turn 2. Berry finished last. A week later, at World Wide Technology Raceway, he finished last once again after Chase Elliott spun him in Turns 1 and 2.

“Yeah, pretty much, but it really hasn’t been because of performance,” Berry said of his postseason being over before it really began. “We’ve qualified well. We’ve had good cars. We just haven’t had the good finishes. 

“That’s just part of it. I don’t think you could ever script three last-place finishes in the ways that we’ve gotten them over the last few weeks.” 

Berry entered the postseason off back-to-back top-10 finishes. He was the No. 13 seed.

“It’s hard to put into words, but I’d be way more disappointed if we just ran like [expletive] for three weeks,” Berry said. “We’ve been up front. ... We had the issue at Darlington, bottoming out. Last week, we get clipped by the [No.] 9 and then tonight the car catches on fire. It’s nothing that we’re doing on our own. 

“The cars have been fast and the performance has been good.  If we just had a little bit of luck, I feel like we could be in a much better situation and, honestly, I think the way that was playing out we would have 100 percent had a chance to win tonight.” 

There are seven races left in the season. Berry said he hopes to have better finishes than the three last-place efforts to close things out.

“Len [Wood] was saying before the race that he never thought that they’d have two in a row, and now we have three in a row,” Berry said. “I don’t know. Hopefully, Tennessee [football] won. They didn’t? Well, perfect.”