Josh Berry is continuing to do Josh Berry things, winning the seventh annual Icebreaker at Florence Motor Speedway, driving the No. 8 Tire Pros / Harrison’s Work Wear Chevrolet for JR Motorsports.
Starting the 125-lap feature from third, the Hendersonville, Tennessee-native was pinned to the inside lane on the initial start, dropping back as far as seventh-place in the opening laps.
Berry was able to methodically work his way through the field whilst saving his tires, taking the lead from Casey Kelley on a restart with 45 laps to go. The 31-year-old never looked back, capturing his first victory in the Icebreaker by over 7.5-seconds.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Berry said in a post-race interview with FloRacing. “In the beginning, it’s just so hard how fast you need to run. One caution can kind of change everything we’re doing. I fell back there a little bit on the bottom, just trying to ride.
“Just tried to do a better job of staying near the front. Last year in this race, I got too far back and just lost track position. Just tried to keep a little better track position and cleaner air.”
The race’s polesitter, Zachary Miracle, suffered an oil leak on an early-race caution, which relegated him to running in last-place. Miracle, much like Berry, was able to work his way through the field, to finish runner-up to Berry and JR Motorsports.
“I’m disappointed with second,” said Miracle. “but at the same time, it’s a great feeling going last to second.”
Kade Brown, Trent Barnes, and Brandon Pierce rounded out the top-five. Casey Kelley, Jacob Heafner, Doug Barnes Jr, Mason Diaz, and Justin Milliken rounded out the top-10.
Other NASCAR notables, include: Bryant Barnhill (16th), Thad Moffitt (20th) and Jeb Burton (22nd).
