Josh Berry nets quiet finish filling in for Chase Elliott

LAS VEGAS — When Josh Berry was named to fill in for Chase Elliott during Sunday’s Pennzoil 400, he had never run competitive laps in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Gen 7 car.

In his first 299 laps running the Gen 7 car, Berry qualified 32nd, finished 24th and 26th in the stages and 29th overall.

Berry moved up to 28th before green-flag pit stops halfway through the first stage. He moved up to 26th after the stops and then to 24th at the end of the stage, one lap down

He quietly finished 26th in stage two but lost a lap and encountered an issue as the final stage began.

“Sometime around the beginning of the last stage, we started having an issue with the throttle and it was hanging wide open, kinda sticking. It really made it hard to control what I was doing there and was super tight carrying way too much throttle. We’ll look at it and see what issue it was,” Berry explained.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series regular emphasized the race was about bringing the car home in one piece.

Hendrick Motorsports is expecting to make an announcement early Monday regarding the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet for Phoenix.