The bank teller cashes in
NASCAR’s round 5 visit to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway produced a popular win via the Wood Brothers Racing team, with Josh Berry taking a maiden win in the squads famed #21 Mustang Cup Car.
In Berry’s first season for the North Carolina team, the 34-year old Tennessee native delivered them its 101st Cup Series victory on a track where he’d previously taken two XFinity wins, and his first in the big time in his 52nd start.
What initially looked like a tight fight with Trackhouse’s Daniel Suarez with 19 laps remaining, turned into a 1.358 second pull-away win as Berry led for a race total of 18 laps on the 2.41 km D-shaped Tri oval.
Berry – who used to work as a bank teller to get out of school hours – was side-by-side on Lap 249 of 267 at the restart, with his Mexican opponent not surrendering the lead until Lap 252. And whilst it was still a dead heat which inched between them by 253rd, the Mustang had cleared the #99 Chevrolet by the next trip around.
“Oh man, I don’t even know what to think,” Berry said after celebrating on the roof of his Ford.“Just awesome, I love this track. Las Vegas has been so good to me. So many great moments here.
“I’ve just struggled in the Next Gen car here. But crew chief Miles Stanley and this whole 21 team, everybody at Wood Brothers Racing gave me a great car today. Just battled and battled and battled. Man, it was our day. I just can’t believe it.
“Such a fight with Daniel there at the end, beating and banging on a mile-and-a-half…crazy! Whoever was going to get out front was probably going to win. We were able to get in front.”
The victory also ended the remarkable three-race winning of Christopher Bell, whose weekend saw him start at the rear due to an unapproved throttle body change.
However, Bell still made it up to second but a mistake in pit lane after Shane van Gisbergen’s spin off Turn 2 on Lap 107, saw the tyre changer not secure his left front properly, putting an end to his historical bid for a fourth straight.
“Our day was going pretty good there at the start,” van Gisbergen said.
“I was learning to move around and started to go forward. Just made an adjustment that didn’t go our way and never recovered.
“It’s a shame, my Red Bull Chevrolet had plenty of potential and I felt like I could’ve been okay.
“My teammates ran really well, so our car was good. Just learning to put myself in the right spots. We’ll be ready for Homestead next weekend.”
For the winner, his shot at the win came to fruition on a Lap 195 caution after a seven car wreck on the backstretch.
That briefly gave him the impetus in Stage 2 after a green-pit cycle saw a dangerous looking Kyle Larson – who had led 61 laps for a race high – was forced to restart in 18th place, with Berry working up from seventh.
Working the banked high line, he first encountered Suarez and the lead on Lap 234, before series champion Joey Logano took the lead.
The ninth and final caution came when Noah Gragson hit the wall hard at Turn 2, with another full field pit-dive ensuing to take fuel out of the equation, with Suarez and Berry leading that final stretch charge out of the lane.
All up there were 32 lead changes from 13 drivers with Austin Cindric (1) and Larson (2) taking the Stage wins.
As for that #21 winning Wood Brothers Mustang, it once again proved to be the source of joy for maiden Cup wins, with Berry being the fourth driver to capture his first win in it, the last being Harrison Burton in 2024.
In a season that’s only produced three winners thus far, the field now heads back to Florida to the Miami Speedway on March 23 for 267 laps at the Homestead oval, with William Byron leading Bell in the regular season title race over Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliot, and Alex Bowman.
Following Miami, is Martinsville, Darlington, and Bristol.
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