NASCAR insider reacts to Chase Elliott-Josh Berry wreck, assigns blame
In the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, you need a little luck and some breaks to go your way. Josh Berry has gotten none of that in the Round of 16. He wrecked on Lap 1 at Darlington. Chase Elliott made contact with him on Lap 36 at Gateway, sending him around.
Just like that, Berry has finished last in both playoff races. The latest issue was clearly on Elliott who made a mistake, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic said.
“Yeah, [that is Elliott’s fault]. I think Elliott said as much, too,” Bianchi said on The Teardown podcast. “He just made a mistake there and looked like he made a little bit of an aggressive move. It’s unfortunate for Berry — you wreck on Lap 1 at Darlington and then you take it on to Gateway. That’s a team that they were going to have to have a lot of things go right, and their luck hasn’t been there this year. It seems like it’s continuing and it’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.”
Chase Elliott apologizes to Josh Berry for spinning him at Gateway
Berry has largely struggled since his win at Las Vegas in March. That made him an underdog heading into his first playoff run and unfortunately for him, things haven’t gone his way. Berry is -45 below the cutline, meaning he’ll be in must-win mode in this Saturday’s Round of 16 finale at Bristol.
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Berry never got the chance to see what could have happened at Gateway, a racetrack the Penske cars had previously run well at. Elliott knew he messed up and apologized to Berry after the race.
“First off just want to apologize to Josh and the 21 team,” Elliott said. “I had no intention of getting into him. I’ve known those guys my whole life, so I just hope that they at least know it wasn’t anything intentional.
“Known Josh for a long time, too, so just want to make sure those guys know that I feel terrible about that. Felt terrible about it right when it happened and wish I could take it back. Yeah, unfortunately that transpired.”