Josh Berry’s attitude toward competing in the IceBreaker at Florence Motor Speedway is different in 2022 than it was just a couple years ago.
This is what happens when a short-track racing virtuoso experiences a rapid ascent that leads to a full-time ride in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
“Obviously things have changed for me,” Berry told NASCAR.com with a laugh, well aware of his understatement.
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Berry in the past saw the annual event at the 0.4-mile paved oval in Timmonsville, South Carolina, as a premature beginning to his race season. He and his team preferred to extend their offseason and allow themselves at least one more weekend to prepare their equipment for the year.
But now the 31-year-old’s primary focus is his first full-time season driving for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, an opportunity he received in part because of his success running part-time in 2021. Suddenly, the IceBreaker is a unique chance to race a late-model stock — a ride comparable in horsepower and downforce to an Xfinity Series car — just a couple weeks prior to the NASCAR season opener.
“I feel like my time in late-model stocks really prepared me for the Xfinity Series,” said Berry, who won two races last season in his fifth year of part-time Xfinity Series competition. “I felt a lot of similarities between the cars.”
Practice for NASCAR racing, though, is only a piece of Berry’s motivation behind running in the IceBreaker, which features late-model stocks in addition to super trucks, limited late models and mini stocks as the kickoff to Florence’s race season. The answer now to question of why Berry would compete in the IceBreaker is simple: Why not?
“It’s about having fun,” said the Hendersonville, Tennessee, native when asked whether the sudden scarcity of short-track racing on his schedule makes success at an event like the IceBreaker more important. “Obviously we want to win; we put in all the work to try to accomplish that. But I don’t feel like I have to win or anything like that. Just enjoy being with each other and see what we can do.”
The group is the JR Motorsports crew of which Berry has been a part since 2010. In addition to success in the Xfinity Series, Berry and the team took the 2020 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship. That, on top of multiple track titles over the years.
“It boils down to them loving short-track racing and wanting to be part of that series, because that’s where they started,” Berry said at the time of team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and others who supported the program. “Dale used it as a stepping stone through the ranks. They just like it.”
That phrase — they just like it — is the bottom line when it comes to Berry’s IceBreaker run.
He mentioned his affinity for the track itself. Florence features a worn-out surface with low grip and progressive banking in the corners, a combination that makes for great racing, often side-by-side in nature. With the exception of the frontstretch, the track has no outside wall. Berry said it’s unusual at first but “no big deal” after a few laps.
He also noted his respect for Florence Motor Speedway owner/promotor Steve Zacharias and his family. Zacharias has operated Florence since the closure of nearby Myrtle Beach Speedway a couple years ago, and he brought the IceBreaker with him as he transitioned his operation to a new facility.
“Steve and his whole family have always treated us really well,” Berry said. “They work really hard, and it’s visible. You watch Steve; he’s doing the drivers meeting, lining up cars and mounting tires. He’s always been a super hard worker even when he was at Myrtle Beach.
“That kind of stuff just resonates with me and my team. It just makes it enjoyable to go race. He really is a promotor, and we want to go support guys like him when we get the chance.”
FloRacing: Berry talks IceBreaker, 2022 Xfinity Series prep
Saturday’s late-model stock feature will mark Berry’s fourth such chance at Florence. That includes his second-place run in last year’s IceBreaker. He won at the track last April, just one week before he notched his first Xfinity Series win after starting 29th at Martinsville Speedway.
So yes, Berry is racing in another IceBreaker just because he likes it. That doesn’t mean winning is not the goal, especially given what happened shortly after he reached Victory Lane at Florence nine months ago.
Repeating that accomplishment — an Xfinity Series win on the heels of a triumph at Florence — would mean a victory for Berry at Daytona International Speedway.