Playoff driver Josh Berry involved in opening-lap crash in Southern 500

Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry was involved in an opening-lap crash during Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs opener at Darlington Raceway. Exiting Turn 2 on the initial start, Berry, who qualified third for the Cook Out Southern 500, got loose and tagged postseason pilot Tyler Reddick before slamming into the outside wall. The wreck happened in front of several other playoff drivers, including Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson and Joey Logano, but they all made it through the crash unscathed. RELATED: Race results | At-track photos Berry limped his No. 21 Ford to pit road and went to the garage for repairs. He returned to the race on Lap 121, finishing 128 laps off the pace in 38th place. "It's kind of hard to even really know, but the car bottomed out five or six times and just wrecked," Berry said after Sunday's race, which was won by Chase Briscoe for the second consecutive season. "It was definitely unexpected. We didn't really fight that too bad in practice. I saw a replay of it when I was sitting in the car while they were fixing it, and you could tell that it bottomed out four or five times, and you can't save them when they're like that." Reddick, driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, stayed on track with minor damage and eventually battled back, finishing the race runner-up to Briscoe. Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher and Daniel Suárez all suffered damage and continued. Both Berry and Reddick are fighting for their first Cup Series title. Berry won his way into the playoffs earlier in the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, while Reddick secured one of two spots available on points last weekend at Daytona International Speedway. MORE: Read about Reddick's runner-up Entering next Sunday's race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), Berry sits 15th on the playoff grid, 19 points below the cutline. He finished 36th in the St. Louis-area race last year and will look to turn his misfortunes around with the first elimination race looming in two weeks at Bristol Motor Speedway. Despite just two top 10s in the last 15 races, Berry remains optimistic ahead of his second trip to Gateway. "It looked like a lot of people had a bad night, which we know how this goes," Berry said. "We just need to avoid a bad night. I obviously haven't seen it yet, but I feel like we're still within striking distance, that if we just go have two good weeks, we'll at least be in the mix once we get to Bristol."