Josh Berry and the No. 21 eero team extended their streak of consecutive top-10 finishes to five with a ninth-place finish in Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Berry and the eero team started the regular-season finale from 24th place and elected to ride near the rear of the field during the early stages, avoiding the potential trouble that came with a tightly packed field frequently running three-wide.
Berry finished 36th in Stage 1 and 25th in Stage 2. During the second stage break, the eero team elected to pit later than many of its competitors, allowing Berry to rejoin the field in 28th place with a full tank of fuel.
Berry briefly worked his way forward to 15th before falling back as far as 38th. As the laps wound down, however, he began a steady charge through the field and broke into the top 10 with 10 laps remaining in the scheduled 160-lap distance.
Berry was running seventh when a late caution for an incident involving Carson Hocevar sent the race into overtime.
On the ensuing restart, Berry made a move to the outside line and surged to fourth on the final lap before several cars ahead of him became involved in a multi-car incident. Berry was collected in the melee, leaving the front of the No. 21 eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse heavily damaged.
Despite the damage, Berry was able to make it to the finish and secure a ninth-place result – his third consecutive ninth-place finish at Daytona – while extending his current streak of top-10 finishes to five races.
Berry and the Wood Brothers team now turn their attention to Darlington Raceway and the Cook Out Southern 500 on Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
