Denny Hamlin reacts to Josh Berry brutal NASCAR Cup playoff run after Bristol elimination

Josh Berry had a promising start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. Berry, in his first season driving the No. 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing, finished fourth at Phoenix Raceway in March and won the following week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Since then, not that much has gone right for Berry and the No. 21 team. Nothing went to plan in the Round of 16 of the playoffs. Berry finished last in each Round of 16 race, bowing out of the postseason. Berry wrecked on Lap 1 of the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway and got spun by Chase Elliott on Lap 36 at Gateway. In Saturday’s Bristol Night Race, his pit crew had to pull him from his car on pit road after it caught on fire.

Berry never stood a chance to compete this postseason. While it’s tough either way, Denny Hamlin said he would prefer to go out like Berry did, rather than being eliminated late in an elimination race.

“Man, Josh Berry — that’s a tough way to go,” Hamlin said on Monday’s Actions Detrimental podcast. “I don’t know, is it tougher to go that way or is it tougher to be in it and then out? … The first one at Darlington, he did screw up, although, I don’t put that on him because it’s hard to control a car that only has three tires on the ground and when he hit that bump, that’s all he had. And then, yeah, he got taken out and then was it just a fire that took him out? I would just rather be out of it at the beginning then have it swept away with 10 laps to go in the elimination race.”

Josh Berry’s disastrous postseason is over

Berry was already facing a tough climb coming into Bristol -45 below the cutline. He was the first driver eliminated from the playoffs.

Just about none of it was in Berry’s control. Unfortunately, his championship hopes are done.

“Man, it’s been a tough couple of weeks, but it hasn’t been because of performance. These guys have been doing a good job,” Berry said. “… Definitely not the way we wanted our first round to go. We felt like we executed well and ran well, just haven’t had the finishes. This is going to be a tough one to watch. That was going to be a lot of fun.”