Josh Berry Wins Battle of Broadway 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds

Josh Berry started his weekend in the Music City with a trip to victory lane at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

Berry took the checkered flag in the Rackley Roofing Battle of Broadway 150 on Thursday night. The Hendersonville, Tennessee native cut his teeth racing on the quarter-mile at the Fairgrounds Speedway, but Thursday's win was his first on the 0.596-mile "big track" at Nashville.

The Battle of Broadway brings a spotlight to the venerable short track before the NASCAR weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, where Berry will compete in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 in the NASCAR Cup Series. Berry will get to celebrate a win before starting his NASCAR Weekend.

"That was really cool," said Berry. "I just can't thank these guys enough at FatHead Racing, Jamie Yelton, everybody at Panini, Campers Inn, Ford, Robbie White Racing Engines, everybody that has made this possible."

Berry, who started fifth, didn't have the fastest car throughout the day of practice and qualifying. However, he was happy with the feel of his FatHead Racing entry and believed he had a car to win.

That proved to be the case, as he steadily worked his way forward following a lap 48 caution for Tucker Wingo spinning in turn two. By lap 60, Berry was up to second, and he'd take the lead on lap 82.

"Today was interesting, man. We didn't have speed at times, but, man, I felt like the car was good and it drove good. I tried not to overthink it. I didn't qualify as good as we wanted, but, man, just was able to methodically work our way through there. We had a couple of good restarts and got the lead. Just really proud of these guys.

"It's super-cool to win here. It's like my third time in a Pro Late Model. Not a lot of experience in these cars, only second race here. To win is really special.

The second caution of the evening took place on lap 105, as Aidan Potter hit the wall in turn three and collected Stacey Crain. This brought most of the field to pit road for their two allotted tires, setting up the fight to the finish.

Trey Craig, last year's winner of the inaugural Battle of Broadway, waited until this opportunity to make his charge to the front and worked his way up to second place. He was unable to chase down Berry in the closing laps, but took solace in finishing second to a NASCAR Cup Series competitor.

"It was hard to catch him up," said Craig. "You know, we had to pass those four or five cars there. He was on rails, you know? He gets paid big money to do this stuff. He's a hell of a wheelman, so he's a tough one to catch. You know, finishing second to a Cup Series driver's not too bad.

Sutton ultimately finished fourth after leading the first 81 laps from pole position. He'll be another driver racing at Nashville Superspeedway this weekend, competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event on Friday night.

"I really couldn't ask for much more," said Sutton. I just really had some problems there with 75, 50 laps to go. Lost the lead and never really was able to catch up after that. We'll move on to the next one."

Hunter Wright finished third, followed by Sutton and Isaac Kitzmiller.

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy

Rackley Roofing Battle of Broadway 150 Unofficial Results