Josh Berry Breaks Down Scary Fire That Led to Unfortunate Playoff Exit at Bristol

Jerry Bonkowski | 14/09/2025
NASCAR Cup Series driver Josh Berry (21) looks on prior to the Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Josh Berry’s hopes to somehow pull off a miracle and advance to the next round of the NASCAR Cup playoffs literally went up in smoke after just 78 laps into Saturday night’s annual summer night race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Berry didn’t even get through the first stage of the final race of the Round of 16 before his car caught fire, and he was barely able to get it into the pits.

The driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford knew he’d need a Hail Mary to advance, coming into the race 45 points below the cutoff line. But it turned out he ultimately cursed his bad luck.

“Maybe seven or eight laps before we come on pit road, we started getting some smoke in the cockpit,” Berry said. “And then the longer I went, the darker the smoke got, and then obviously by the time we got on pit road, it was completely black smoke. So yeah, obviously something caught on fire. The car just burned up.”

Although some reports indicated Berry’s firesuit was smoking when he exited his stopped car, he discounted that, even though when he managed to finally escape the car and sit on pit road, he went into a significant coughing spell because of all the smoke he had inhaled.

“I don’t think the fire made it inside the cockpit,” Berry said. “It was just a lot of smoke. It seemed like the fire stayed uh in the fender well there, which is a good thing, obviously, but man, disappointing again. We had a car that was really good, that was going to fall right in our wheelhouse, I feel like, to have a really good night. This one’s going to be hard to watch.”

Berry became the first driver to be eliminated from the playoffs, with three more set to miss the cut by the time the checkered flag falls at the end of the 500 scheduled laps.

Post Edited By: Rahul Ahluwalia
Bristol Motor Speedway John Berry NASCAR Cup Series

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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