Josh Berry schools NASCAR Xfinity field at Charlotte.
- JR Motorsports Josh Berry won his second Xfinity race of 2022 Saturday at Charlotte.
- The Dale Earnhardt Jr. owned team has now won five races this season.
- Three of the team’s drivers have won at least one race.
The beat goes on and on and on for JR Motorsports in NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series. The beat-downs go on and on, too as was proven Saturday.
Josh Berry’s victory in the Xfinity series Alsco Uniforms 300 at Charlotte Motor
Xfinity Race Results (PDF)
NASCAR
Speedway was the fifth this season for the Chevrolet-based team owned by former Cup Series star Dale Earnhardt Jr. Berry had an easy time of it but only after some intense racing between he and teammate Justin Allgaier that ended with Allgaier meeting the wall late in the 200-lapper.
They were racing each other hard when second-running Allgaier made a strong outside run at Berry. There was slight contact and Allgaier fell back, then made a late pit stop to address slight damage. That ended the competition and Berry drove on to win 17 seconds ahead of Ty Gibbs, pole-winner Sam Mayer, Noah Gragson (who ran part of the race with seven cylinders), and Ryan Preece, the last driver on the lead lap. Danie Hemric, Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne, and Myatt Snider completed the top-10.
It was Berry’s second victory this season, the fourth in his 42 career Xfinity starts, and his first at Charlotte. He’s now won at Dover and Charlotte this year for JR Motorsports while Allgaier won several weeks ago at Darlington, and Gragson won early this year at Phoenix and Talladega. JR Motorsports leads the series in victories, winning 5 of the 13 races run so far.
Berry acknowledged the “good news, bad news” aspect of having to race each weekend against teammates with cars and crews as good as his. “We push each other to get better,” he said. “We never let up trying to get better, but it’s hard to race teammates every weekend. I have to be as aggressive as everybody else, so it’s a good competition.”
He and Allgaier have spent much of the season racing not just the “outside” competition, but each other. “Every week, it just seems we’re battling amongst ourselves,” Allgaier said after his disappointing day. “It may not even be for the win, but whether it be for fifth or second or 10th — whatever it is — we race each other really hard and we race each other a lot.
“So, it can be difficult at times. I mean, obviously knowing where that line is, it’s always the difficult part, but on the other side of it, I think you race each other aggressively but trying not to wreck each other and battle it out for the win.
“The worst thing we could do is come here with four extremely fast Camaros and not one of us win it. So, we did the best job we could today and came up a little bit short but obviously as a company, we still got the victory.”
For fans it’s providing some of the best racing in quite some time.
Former Cup Series champion Joey Logano watched (and called) the race from the FOX-TV booth. He called it “a fabulous race,” adding “Whatever they had going today, they need to keep it going. Close racing. Tires wearing out. Close running up front. I know, the winner won by 17 or 18 seconds, but it was still a great race all day until the end.”
Keyword: Rivalry Between NASCAR’s JR Motorsports Teammates Makes for Entertaining Racing