Josh Berry, JR Motorsports bring A game to win A-GAME 200

Dover International Speedway is a place that Josh Berry probably looks upon fondly. He made his NASCAR Cup Series début there in 2021, while the Xfinity Series‘ trip there on Saturday saw him score his first win of the season. Although JR Motorsports team-mate Justin Allgaier was the class of the field during the final stage, lapped traffic enabled Berry to overtake him with fifty-five laps remaining.

Brandon Jones started on the pole and led the first thirty laps—in the middle of which David Starr spun after contact with Kyle Weatherman—before Sam Mayer passed him. Mayer, also a JRM driver, won the stage ahead of allies Allgaier and Berry. A trio of Joe Gibbs Racing cars in Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs followed, while A.J. Allmendinger, fourth JRM driver Noah Gragson, Riley Herbst, and Sheldon Creed rounded out the top ten.

The second stage ran completely green before Mason Massey wrecked to end it under yellow. Although the segment was dominated by Jones and Gibbs, Allgaier took the lead ten laps before its conclusion to win. Jones, Allmendinger, Berry, Gibbs, Herbst, Gragson, Daniel Hemric, Creed, and Austin Hill tailed.

Allgaier dominated much of Stage #3, but lapped traffic hindered his progress and allowed Berry to catch up before making the overtake on lap 146. Two cautions occurred during the stage: the first came six laps after it began when Stefan Parsons spun, while the second was approximately ten laps following Berry claiming the lead for oil leaking from Bayley Currey‘s car after the driveshaft punctured the oil tank. A poor pit stop prior to the second restart dropped Allgaier back, but as Bery stormed off to his third career win, Allgaier rebounded to finish second.

“I went toe-to-toe with Justin Allgaier and he’s so freaking good here,” said Berry. “Gosh, I thought he was kind of out of it after that pit stop and then he was right back to second and I thought, ‘Here we go again.'”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	4	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
2	7	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	5	54	Ty Gibbs	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
4	3	9	Noah Gragson	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	2	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
6	8	16	A.J. Allmendinger	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
7	1	19	Brandon Jones	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
8	11	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	6	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
10	38	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
11	17	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
12	18	10	Landon Cassill	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
13	16	02	Brett Moffitt	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
14	20	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
15	10	23	Anthony Alfredo	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
16	13	27	Jeb Burton	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
17	23	38	Parker Retzlaff	RSS Racing	Ford	200	Running
18	22	68	Brandon Brown	Brandonbilt Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	Running
19	19	36	Alex Labbé	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
20	28	45	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
21	12	26	Chandler Smith*	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	199	Running
22	25	31	Myatt Snider	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
23	31	66	J.J. Yeley	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	198	Running
24	21	48	Kaz Grala*	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	198	Running
25	33	78	Josh Williams	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
26	26	6	Ryan Vargas	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
27	29	34	Kyle Weatherman	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	197	Running
28	32	07	Joe Graf Jr.	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	196	Running
29	24	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	195	Running
30	30	99	Stefan Parsons	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	195	Running
31	37	5	Matt Mills	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	195	Running
32	35	13	Chad Finchum	MBM Motorsports	Toyota	194	Running
33	36	35	Patrick Emerling	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	192	Running
34	34	91	Mason Massey	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	191	Running
35	27	08	David Starr	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford	189	Running
36	14	4	Bayley Currey	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	154	Engine
37	9	18	John Hunter Nemechek*	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	83	Brakes
38	15	44	Rajah Caruth	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	58	Suspension
DNQ		47	Brennan Poole	Mike Harmon	Cherolet

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Xfinity points