Bumps bite Berry, sending him crashing out of the lead at Texas

Josh Berry was lured into a false sense of security that cost him the race lead Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Berry was leading the Wurth 400 in the Wurth Ford Mustang for Wood Brothers Racing when he hit the bump in Turn 4 and crashed on lap 125. The car got out from underneath him and sent him into a spin, ending with contact with the outside wall. The lap before, Berry ran the same lane and felt OK.

“I thought I was all right,” Berry told his team.

The damage forced Berry behind the wall for repairs. He eventually returned to the race.

“It’s just hard to get your car to be really strong in 1 and 2; you are going to be on edge in 3 and 4,” Berry said. “I feel like my car was really good… I definitely have to look back at it and see what I could have done differently, but in the end, I think I am more afraid of being slow than spinning out like that.”

Berry led 41 laps. He took the lead at the end of the first stage when he came off pit road with the race lead. On the restart, Berry kept the lead over Ford teammate Austin Cindric and then fended off Kyle Larson on a restart on lap 94.

The gap was just under one second when Berry crashed.

“The car was really good,” he said. “I could tell early on that our car was really strong, especially after the first pit stop when we made an adjustment, it was really good and we got out front and felt really good about it. I just started to approach the lap traffic. You have no choice but to run the opposite lane. Your car is never going to turn if you follow them. I went around the 62 on the outside and felt pretty decent about it. Then caught the 51 and was working on the 51 and hit that bump and got loose.

“I don’t know what I would do too much different. Obviously in these cars, especially at a place like this you are going to be fast, it is going to be uncomfortable and you are going to be on edge. Unfortunately, it bit us today.”

Berry finished 32nd. He hasn’t had a top-10 finish since winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.