Josh Berry drove his No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to victory lane Saturday evening at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to claim his fifth Xfinity Series career win and a spot in the Championship 4.
He also led a decisive 65 laps, including the final 34, to give Chevrolet its 500th win in the series to clinch the Manufacturer Championship.
Berry described the day as, “just really, really, really, special. You know when I started on this journey and found out I was gonna run full-time this year we all sat down at the beginning of the year and said that our goal was to make the Championship 4. We felt like we were capable of that. We knew what we could do. We knew there would be bumps along the road in my first full season but we believed in our hearts that we could be at Phoenix.
His teammates, Noah Gragson and Justin Allgaier finished second and third, respectively, giving JR Motorsports a 1-2-3 sweep at Las Vegas.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs and Trevor Bayne finished fourth and fifth with Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones and Anthony Alfredo rounding out the top 10.
Gragson leaves Las Vegas leading the standings by 19 points over Gibbs and with a 29-point advantage over Allgaier.
Regular season champion AJ Allmendinger started on the pole and led seven laps, finishing seventh in Stage 1 and 10th in Stage 2. But, after experiencing a vibration caused by two loose tires, he had to make a green flag pit stop, putting him a lap down. Allmendinger finished 22nd, the lowest of the playoff contenders.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Hailie Deegan finished 13th, the best finish ever by a woman in an Xfinity Series debut.
After the race, Deegan said, “I’m pretty excited right now; the guys gave me an amazing car.”
When asked if we might see her competing in more Xfinity Series races, she said, “I would love to be. If anyone’s out there that wants to pay the bills I’d be more than happy to run some more Xfinity races.”
The Xfinity Series Playoffs continue next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway at 4:30 ET Saturday on the USA Network with radio coverage by MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
