Noah Gragson, fresh off his win from the fan vote, will be joined by Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace to complete the lineup of 20 drivers tearing up the track at the NASCAR All-Star Race in North Wilkesboro. These guys [Ty and Bubba], riding their Toyotas, were at the front of the pack. Meanwhile, Josh Berry, who back in 2022 also served as the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr in the CARS Tour Window World 125 late model race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, currently driving the #4 Ford Mustang dubbed “Dark Horse,” almost missed it.

After a killer push at the end, he ended up in third, just shy of the cut. Starting from the P7 spot, Berry really gave the leaders a run for their money but fell just a bit short. Still, he felt like he nailed it from the get-go.

Josh Berry is bummed about missing out on the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro

The race started off without much action, but in the second half, Josh Berry dodged a crash early on. Driving the #4, last year’s Open champ, he got stuck a bit on the restart behind Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace. Berry then took it up a notch, challenging Wallace and his SHR teammate Chase Briscoe for the second spot. All three drivers were riding on those red Goodyear Racing Eagles, so no one really had an edge over the others. And while Berry was killing it in Turns 1 and 2, the other end of the track was a different story. His #4 Harrison’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse kept creeping up on Wallace but then fell back each time.

When the race wrapped up, Berry was still a few car lengths behind Wallace and out of the running for the final spot. Despite that, Berry felt they had nailed the practice, even though he got a bit loose during qualifying.

He said, “We had a really good practice. We were loose in qualifying and that kind of translated to the first run. The boys on pit road had a great pit stop and got us some track position. I think the tire compound tightened us up a little bit and we were better. We still needed to be a little bit tighter. I was doing everything I could without a doubt. I really found a lot in one and two. I was fast in one and two, but just couldn’t quite put together three and four to make a charge at them.”

“I hate to not be in it, but we were probably the whole show right there for how it looked. I was doing everything I could, I just couldn’t quite get to the 23. The last couple of laps I got a little bit better, but it would have been hard to pass him without really roughing him up,” and hence Berry continued to race clean all along.

Talking about getting stuck behind the other drivers, Josh Berry said, “I don’t know, they were just side by side. […] You know the old saying about ‘Sh*t or get off the pot,’ and that’s how I felt Man! I mean, either passing or don’t. I made the move to shake it up. I was hoping to get both of them, but just getting Bubba was able to carry the momentum before get back in front of us. And You know it just didn’t work out.”

Even though the special ‘option‘ tire [as per the claims made by Goodyear’s racing chief Greg Stucker], was supposed to boost Berry’s performance, it seems like it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

#4 driver reviewed the ‘Option‘ tire

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While Denny Hamlin and his teammate Tyler Reddick were at loggerheads over the new ‘option‘ tire from Goodyear, Josh Berry seemed pretty convinced that this tire was a step up. The only thing missing? The tire didn’t wear down as much.

Berry shared, “It doesn’t really fall off as much I guess as much, I bet the graph would probably still look the same. The car has just so much better feel. And I think we can keep straight in towards that direction. We can probably go softer yet. I don’t know how much they wore. I felt like they started to give up a little bit. maybe in the last few laps and then I kind of cooled them back off and they made another sabbad at, um. I don’t know. It’s definitely a step in the right direction though.”

It’ll be interesting to see how the drivers handle starting with the new ‘option tire’ in the actual All-Star race.