This story was updated to add new information.
NASCAR Cup driver Josh Berry’s victory in the Rackley Roofing Battle of Broadway 150 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on May 29 was disallowed after Berry’s car was found to have violated technical regulations during the post-race inspection.
Berry, a Hendersonville native who had unofficially been declared the winner of the second annual JEGS/CRA sanctioned race, was disqualified and Trey Craig was named the winner, according to Track Enterprise operations manager Adam Mackey.
Berry’s No. 21 FatHead Racing pro late model Ford violated the race’s weight percentage specifications.
“They rolled across in post race tech and (Berry) was a little bit too much over the allowance of left-side weight percentage,” Mackey told The Tennessean. “It’s 58.09% what they’re supposed to be and that includes the allowance that they give. Kind of a little bit of a cushion. And he was still over that.”
Berry, in his second Cup season and first with Wood Brothers Racing, is back in town to race in the NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 1.
The ruling came about two hours after Berry, his family and his sponsors celebrated on the podium. Berry had been presented a trophy guitar along with $10,000 for the win. Both items were given to Craig after the violation was discovered.
Craig, a Louisville resident, won the inaugural Battle of Broadway 150, which also included Berry and fellow NASCAR Cup driver Ross Chastain in the field.
With Berry disqualified Hunter Wright from Mt. Juliet moved from third to second, pole setting Dawson Sutton from Lebanon, was third, Isaac Kitzmiller was fourth and Dustin Smith was fifth.
Before Berry’s car had undergone the post-race technical inspection Craig was asked about finishing second this year after winning last year.
“It’s awesome; (Berry) makes a lot of money to drive race cars,” Craig said. “We’re just guys that try to do this on the weekends and have fun and to run second to him means the world.”
Berry, who won his first Cup race earlier this season at Las Vegas, finished fifth in the Battle of Broadway 150 last year while Chastain was fourth. It was Berry’s first time to race on the 0.596-mile track at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. He had raced Legends cars on the quarter-mile track.
Before knowing the result of the tech inspection Berry said winning at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway was a goal of his.
“I was teenager running Legends cars here and then we’d load up our car and go up in the stands and watch Willie (Allen) and Joe Buford and those guys run races here,” Berry said. “That was why I wanted to come here and check off that box in my career. I wanted to come here and first just compete and race on the five-eighths mile like I did last year, but obviously you want to win too, so that checked a big box for me and it was really special.”
“Honestly, I was really surprised that in that first (restart) the 20 (Johnson) took the bottom and that got me on the outside behind Dawson and he got a great restart and I was able to follow him,” Berry said. “Really, I thought Dawson had the best car and he stretched out a little bit and then I stayed closer. I started pressuring him and that surprised me. When we got in the top three I knew our car was good and when I was able to pressure (Sutton) I knew we had a really good shot.”
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
