Josh Berry and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse had just finished fifth in Stage Two of Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway when a collision with Tyler Reddick ended their race and left them with a 36th-place finish. Berry was driving a throwback-themed Mustang based on the Lotus Ford that Jim Clark, with pit work by the Wood Brothers, drove to victory in the 1965 Indianapolis 500.
Prior to the green flag, the audience at Darlington and those following on TV got a Wood Brothers history lesson when broadcasters Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer circled the track in the actual Wood Brothers cars that David Pearson and Neil Bonnett drove to victory at Darlington back in the day. And the Woods served as Grand Marshals for the event with the family giving drivers the command to start their engines.
Once the green flag flew, Berry steadily moved forward from his 24th-place starting spot, finishing the first 90-lap Stage in 17th place. In the second Stage, the team decided to run longer than most of their competitors during a round of green-flag pit stops. The strategy paid off as Berry had cycled up to third place when the caution flew at Lap 138 for debris on the track.
Berry made his pit stop under the caution flag and restarted in fifth place. He raced in the top five for the remainder of the Stage, ending that segment in fifth place and earning six bonus points. As the third and final segment of the race got under way, Berry was in the top five when the contact with Reddick sent the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang slamming into the inside wall.
“It always gets tight off of [Turn] Two here at Darlington,” Berry told reporters at the track. “It looked like just me and the 45 got together. It’s hard to say one way or the other if he came up a little or I was a little too low. Obviously you’re trying to keep it out of the fence and clear that bump and everything, so I don’t know. It’s a racing deal, I guess.”
Berry went on to say that he had a fast Mustang.
“I feel like we steadily worked our way forward throughout the whole race and caught a break on that green-flag sequence to get up front,” he said. “But I thought our car held on well, and I think we had a shot at a really solid finish.”
Berry and the Wood Brothers team now turn their focus to next Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.