Super Late Models
SpeedFest to Test Bubba Pollard's New Speed
Jan 28, 2022
It has been something of a race car grand tour for Josh Berry over the past 13 months and he hopes 2022 will be no different.
Josh Berry made his Snowball Derby debut in 2019, the same year he won the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway. The now 31-year-old earned his biggest opportunity in 2021 with a partial NASCAR Xfinity Series season with JR Motorsports and rewarded his longtime benefactors with two victories at Martinsville and Las Vegas.
He also made two Cup Series starts at Dover and Michigan.
While Berry has a legendary pedigree in Late Model Stock Cars, he has also started to expand his horizons to Super Late Models and the Camping World Truck Series. Those platforms are related in that Berry is starting to race both under the Rackley WAR banner with Willie Allen and Curtis Sutton.
His Super Late Model debut with the organization comes this week at Watermelon Capital Speedway for Speedfest -- another set of firsts for the winningest CARS Tour driver.
"It kind of reminds me of Florence, I guess," Berry told Racing America after testing on Thursday. "It reminds me a little bit of Florence without a backstretch wall and stuff. But really how the corners are with the wall to the inside, it reminds me of Florence. But it's really a unique place, though."
Berry got a full day of testing on Thursday and will just have another hour on Friday to shake it down. He was in the fifth to seventh range on speed during the test, but says the sessions were more about balance.
"Honestly, I’m just trying to figure out what race pace feels like," Berry said. "I’m trying to learn how this place drives. What makes it challenging, I guess, is that I’ve run a lot of different Super races now, but it’s usually with a different car, different chassis and a different track every time.
"But it’s a race car and the key is always making it drive better, even at the expense of speed, because that’s how you get there by the end."
Berry will embark on his first full-time Xfinity Series campaign starting in February at Daytona for JR Motorsports. When his schedule permits, he plans to race a healthy number of Late Model Stock races for JRM too.
If the schedule further allows, he would be open to racing for Rackley WAR in a Super this summer and especially, potentially, the big race at the end of the year.
"I haven't dove too much into the schedule," Berry said. "I would love to run a couple of times and do the (Snowball) Derby with them, but we'll see how everything goes and how this weekend goes. So far, so good."
For now, Speedfest was just a chance to get more seat time before the season, have another new experience and do it all with a group of people that have become friends.
"It's good for me to race different cars and tracks, experience new things," Berry said. "Obviously, I have a relationship with these guys from last year. I just like racing with them, put them all together and that's why we're here."