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Night three at Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland on Sunday was a night Berry was just as soon forget.  Rather than serving as a turning point, it only elevated the level of frustration in the ABR camp.

“Not a lot I can say about tonight.  The car was bad and so was the driver.”, Berry said.

After qualifying 14th in his group, finishing 7th in his heat, and not transferring through the B-main, Berry and his team loaded up and headed home right away to get started on going over the car and preparing for Path Valley Speedway Park on Tuesday.  The day off on Monday would give them an opportunity to regroup.

When the team unloaded for Tuesday’s show, quite a few changes had been made to the Tuscarora Restoration, Juniata Veterinary Clinic, Berry’s Siding & Seamless Gutter, SRI Performance / Stock Car Steel & Aluminum, VP Racing Fuels, Carquest of State College No.86.

After posting good lap times in hot laps, Berry’s qualifying run came up short of expectations when he landed 12th in the rundown for group A.

“I was really confused when the car got really tight in qualifying because it was good in hot laps and we had not changed anything.  When I got back to our pit we discovered the right rear tire was almost completely flat.  I ran over something in staging and cut the sidewall just before I started my time trial run.”, Berry explained.

From outside row two in his heat, Berry got into the 3rd and final transfer spot at the drop of the green and held it to the halfway point, but late in the race slipped to 4th and was relegated to the B-main.

Berry started on the pole of the 10-lap B-main and never looked back, winning over Drake Troutman and Kyle Hardy to put his Rocket Chassis in the show. 

After starting 19th in the 35-lap feature, Berry slipped back as far as 21st before rebounding and charging forward to 14th on lap nine.  The second half of the race was more of a struggle when the right front brake issue surfaced again.  He finished 17th.

“After Hagerstown, we went over everything, talked with the folks at Rocket Chassis and with Jim at JDS Racing.  We determined some of the changes we made over the offseason were working against us, so we put some of those things back to how they were last year.”, Berry shared.

“It helped.  We were a lot better at Path Valley.  Only racing three times before Speedweek has hurt us.  If we had raced more we would have figured these things out sooner.”

“We have made tremendous gains in the handful of races we have run.  We expected to be better, but the good news is we know what our issues have been and we can work on them to get to where we should be.”

Berry has the equipment to do the job.  Facing tough fields with limited laps this year is part of the reality of the challenge they face, but they are battling through that.

“I want to give a shout-out to Tom Barron and Barron’s Racing Engines.  It’s no secret that our powerplants have been a pain point for us in recent years, sidelining us with a series of issues, so after last season we started working with Tom.  He has got our engine program on the right track.  We appreciate that, especially after what we have gone through the past few years.”, Berry said.

“We are hitting the reset as we head to Selinsgrove to start the second half of Speedweek.  It’s one of my better tracks, so it will be a good gauge of where we are.  We are looking to get some confidence back.”

Berry was one of nineteen drivers to accept the invite to compete Sunday evening at the high-banked 4-tenths mile oval not far across the river from Philadelphia International Airport.  

He wasted no time making sure fans took notice.  With names like Covert, Eckert, Frye, Bernheisel, and Yoder in the field, Berry topped them all in qualifying with a blistering lap of 15.460 seconds, nearly two-tenths better than his closest competitor.  

It was an impressive effort, especially when you consider Berry has never seen the facility before.  He spent weeks doing homework though.  He watched videos and looked for information about tire wear, doing his best to prepare his equipment and team for the venture.  He clearly passed the initial test.

Berry earned the pole for his 8-lap heat race.  There was never a question.  He drove away from the field and took the checkered flag 1.4 seconds ahead of second place.

The six-car redraw dealt Berry his first minor setback.  He pulled number six.

Berry took the green from outside row three, feeling confident he had plenty to get him to the front over the course of the 40 scheduled laps.  Unfortunately very early on he had lost power steering, which was compounded by a water pump issue that led to overheating, forcing him to the sidelines just a few laps into the main event.  Officially he was recorded as finishing 18th.

“First off, I want to give a huge shout-out to Chris Spotts Welding & Repair for the $300 Quick Time Award.  That’s money that makes a difference, especially for a team like ours.  Just getting here with gas, tolls, tires, and race fuel is expensive, so we needed to make some money.  We really appreciate what Chris did.”, Berry said.

“We didn’t get the finish we deserved but honestly we are all leaving here smiling.  We were fast even though we had never seen this joint before.  That gives us a lot of confidence in what we are doing.  That’s big.  We will carry this into Port Royal next weekend.”