With 24 wins and 33 top-5 finishes in 37 starts, calling 2020 a good season for Josh Berry would be an understatement.

Berry had more than twice as many wins as anyone else in NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I, helping him to roll to a national championship by nearly 30 points.

“It was really just amazing,” 31-year-old Berry said. “We kind of set out the year, we didn‘t really intend on competing for the national championship, and some things happened and schedules got changed obviously with everything going on in the world and it kind of led us to compete for it.

“It‘s been pretty awesome. We had an awesome season and the last month or so has been pretty fun.”

Berry and his JR Motorsports team found a home at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina, and realized really early in the summer they could be competing for something special. The team decided around August they would run for national points, travelling to a few more racetracks around the Carolinas and Virginia, including Southern National Motorsports Park, Dominion Raceway, Langley and Myrtle Beach Speedways.

The national championship was the first of Berry‘s career.

[NEWS] It’s OFFICIALu203c@joshberry is the 2020 #NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National Champion.@AdvanceAuto | @JRMotorsports pic.twitter.com/tOcuUZnzUU

— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) October 20, 2020

“Really the last couple weeks we felt like we were in good shape,” Berry said. “You never know what can happen with that deal though. I‘ve learned that just from paying attention to it over the years. Really we went into the last couple weeks and Peyton Sellers had moved to second in the points so we really just decided to go race wherever he was in hopes of keeping him from bettering his score. Really that was kind of what our game plan was the last couple weeks. So we felt like as long as we were able to beat those guys there was no way they could catch us.”

RELATED: Grind of a Season Leads to Big Rewards for JR Motorsports Late Model Program

Berry called the national championship one of the highlights of his career, the other being his win in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in October 2019. The Martinsville win served as something of a springboard for Berry in his career, and helped him gain confidence going into 2020.

“It‘s just been incredible, really. Winning Martinsville was such a huge deal and it was a huge deal for me personally because that race had been pretty tough on me over the years,” Berry said. “Martinsville was a huge goal for us, and to accomplish that it kind of led us to wonder if we could ever compete and win a national title, and that was kind of what led us to where we ended up this year.

“Those two things have just been amazing for me to accomplish. So many great drivers have done that. To be able to add my name to that list and be able to accomplish both of those things really meant a lot.”

If the Martinsville win gave Berry confidence heading into 2020, a national championship is enough to give him even more confidence heading into 2021, when he‘ll race part-time with JRM in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

NEWS: @DaleJr names @joshberry to drive first half of 2021 @NASCAR_Xfinity schedule in No. 8 entry.

Full story u27a1ufe0f https://t.co/j4QaJZGGeH pic.twitter.com/4a2GsxMggy

— JR Motorsports (@JRMotorsports) October 22, 2020

Berry – who has raced seven times in the Xfinity Series, but not since 2017 – said he had talked a little bit with the team about maybe putting something together for 2021, but that call was much more unexpected than the one from NASCAR telling him he‘d won a national title.

“For them to commit to me like they have and put together a deal for me, in the middle of everything we had going, it was just really amazing.”

“I‘ve had a few previous opportunities in the Xfinity Series that really didn‘t pan out like I‘d hoped,” said Berry. “It‘s been a few years since then and just in my career I‘ve been able to accomplish a lot in that time so it makes me feel more prepared and confident going into next year and hopefully we can do some great things.”

The team — with sponsors All Things Automotive and iRacing — has already started to get to work on next year. Until then, though, Berry is trying to soak up the last month and appreciate all his recent short track accomplishments.

“Over the last few years we‘ve been able to have a lot of success which makes things a lot easier,” he said. “And now we‘ve got a little girl that is getting to go experience those things at the race track and go racing with, us so it‘s a lot more special to enjoy those moments with her.”

In an abnormal season from the start, Josh Berry and his JR Motorsports late model team started the year racing at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina, a big shift brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

It was sometime around the middle of the summer, after the team had picked up a few wins, Berry decided to try to run for a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship.

But, not everyone was on board with Berry‘s idea, especially his crew chief, Ryan Vasconcellos.

“We picked up a couple wins at Hickory one weekend,” Vasconcellos said. “After that race Josh was like, ‘I think I want to run for a national title.‘ And I was like, ‘You better find a new crew, cause that‘s too much for us.‘

“Now here we are four or five months later.”

What a season for @joshberry…27 wins and a NASCAR @AdvanceAuto Parts Weekly Series championship! Congratulations! @relyonATA @iRacing https://t.co/aMAjgG79Ou

— JR Motorsports (@JRMotorsports) December 4, 2020

Months later, after some convincing, Vasconcellos is a national champion crew chief with Berry. The team had 24 victories at four different tracks, and won the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I title by 28 points.

Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. also won the Lincoln Electric Car Owner of the Year Award.

Even though Berry and Vasconcellos won all but 13 of their 2020 races, the  championship was anything but easy for the team. After starting the year focusing on Hickory, once the decision was made to go for a title they started traveling wherever they could to race.

“Everybody was on board when we said we were going to try to chase a national title. Everybody except me, I think,” Vasconcellos said. “They said let‘s do it and I couldn‘t let them down so we just traveled around and won some races.”

RELATED: Momentum Carries Josh Berry To Dream Season

Splitting up the two cars in JRM meant that with one staying tour racing and Berry running NASCAR late model events, they were forced to split personnel. Vasconcellos said there were many races when it was just him, Berry, a spotter, and tire guy.

The split also meant having to divide tools, supplies, shocks, springs, and even spare parts and motors in case they ran into issues.

The traveling was especially tough given Berry was the only one on the team who worked full-time with JRM. The other three had full-time jobs outside of racing.

“It was definitely more work for sure,” Vasconcellos said.

They never missed a beat, though. Once the decision to run NASCAR weekly seres full time was made they started to dial in. There was one weekend in August Berry won two races at Hickory on Saturday and two more at Southern National Motorsports Park in North Carolina on Sunday.

The team was winning, but Vasconcellos said they were racing so much they didn‘t have time to sit back and relax. The best way he could describe the season was a grind from start to finish.

“If we ran at Hickory Saturday night it was like, ‘All right, is Southern National running? Where can we go? Can we go to (Myrtle) Beach? The Beach rained out on Saturday. O.K., let‘s shoot down to Myrtle Beach and try to pick up a win there.‘ There really wasn‘t a lot of time to sit down and celebrate or anything like that,” Vasconcellos said.

“It was totally like we couldn‘t even think about what was happening. In the moment you always think about what‘s the next race you‘re going to, what we‘re going to have to change, and what motors we‘re going to have to have to compete with the local guys, the guys that run there weekly.”

Berry and Vasconcellos have been working together since Berry joined JRM in 2010. Vasconcellos started with the team in 2008.

The two have built a close bond over the last decade.

“We‘ve been to a lot of races together and lost a ton of races,” Vasconcellos said. “And it makes you appreciate all the wins that we had this year.”

The two and their team have traveled a lot together in that time. They used to go and up and down the road to Radford, Virginia taking on former national champions like Lee Pulliam and Philip Morris at Motor Mile Speedway.

“Trying to think about how we can beat them every week,” Vasconcellos said of those early years. “It definitely shows me how hard those guys work for all the national titles that they‘ve got. It‘s definitely impressive because one thing we learned this year is it‘s not easy, that‘s for sure.”

Vasconcellos said he considers Berry one of his best friends, and their tire guy, Justin, is an equally good friend to the two. The whole team hangs out on weekends, with the conversations usually revolving around racing.

“We eat, sleep, live racing,” Vasconcellos said. “We think about it all the time. We work together, try to make smart decisions. Really just a team. We work together. Some people are better in other areas and that‘s where the team comes into place.”

Even though Berry is the driver, Vasconcellos said he does just as much work on the car as any of them.

“He does a lot during the week setting the cars up,” he said of Berry. “He‘s probably one of the smartest drivers when it comes to the racecar and what‘s going on in the race and on pit road week-to-week.

“That‘s probably the biggest thing is he‘s grown from being a legends car racer out in Tennessee to an iRacer to being a next level racer now, which I think he‘s proven going on to being an Xfinity racer next year. I think that‘ll be pretty cool to watch.”

The team — with JRM manager Bryan Shaffer, John West, David West, and Jay Hitchcock – has been working together for a long time, but their success has grown over the last three years. It goes back to the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in 2018 that Vasconcellos said they felt slipped away from them.

They went back in 2019 with something to prove, and they did just that, winning in dominant fashion, leading every lap.

“It’s a clean sweep for Josh Berry”

Leads every lap en route to ud83cudfc1#ValleyStar300 | @MartinsvilleSpy | #NWAAS pic.twitter.com/ErEuZKGW31

— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) October 6, 2019

The Martinsville win gave the team momentum Vasconcellos said they carried into this season. To him, it seemed like everywhere they went they had speed.

“It seems like everywhere we go this year it was like we unloaded and we couldn‘t do the wrong thing for a while,” he said.

“Just trying to learn from all of our mistakes from the past decade of working together and putting more pieces of the puzzle together, and really and truly that is what made us so good the year.”

Berry will move on to run a partial schedule in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with JRM next season, and Vasconcellos said going for a national championship was too much wear and tear to try for again.

They‘ll take the rest of the year to relax with family for the holidays, and enjoy the rewards of their hard work in 2020.

“It still doesn‘t feel real. It hasn‘t sank in,” Vasconcellos said. “After winning the national title and winning a couple big races we took a big breath of fresh air there and then we went right back at it and tried to win a couple more.

“It‘s just been an unbelievable season. Thanks JR Motorsports and All Things Automotive and iRacing and Dale Jr. and Kelley (Earnhardt Miller) and LW Miller and TDS Decal Services and all the guys that have helped us throughout this year.”

Peyton Sellers has made a habit of having his name near the top of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series standings the last decade.

Even though 2020 was a different year for Sellers and his late model team, the finish was much the same. The 2005 national champion finished second in the Division I national and took home a track championship.

The COVID-19 pandemic made the season difficult for Sellers from the start. A five-time track champion at South Boston Speedway, he was unable to race at his home after the Virginia track canceled the season.

Opting to travel and find a new home, Sellers won a track championship at Dominion Raceway in northern Virginia, completing every lap and never finishing below fourth. It was Sellers’s first time in his career racing for a championship at Dominion.

Sellers won 10 races and had 26 top-five finishes in 30 NASCAR starts, and was the 2020 Virginia champion.

“2020 has been kind of doom and gloom for a lot of people. I have a soft spot for any business that has been shut down due to COVID, but honestly our race team and our construction company both have been able to succeed and have a good year this year,” Sellers said. “Racing started off slow, we started off the year kind of loaded and ready to go out and try to win races at Myrtle Beach back in February. We went down there and had a pretty solid top 10 effort, and then we had to sit at home for two months due to COVID.

“All in all we had an excellent year considering all we‘ve been through.”

The added travel made finding and getting to races complicated at times. Sellers said there were several weekends they would race at either Dominion or Langley Speedway near Virginia Beach on Saturday, and then travel down to Southern National Motorsports Park in North Carolina on Sunday.

Good car counts everywhere they went helped with gaining more national points.

It was the work of the team, though, that helped Sellers push to the top of the pack.

“Just a lot of dedication from my guys that work on our cars,” Sellers said. “They put in a lot of hours this year. Obviously everybody was faced with a difficult situation this year and I had some loyal guys that stayed with me and they traveled with me on weekends to race.

“My brother, H.C., he‘s kind of the glue that holds it all together. He puts in a lot of man-hours and a lot of time every year preparing us fast cars. It feels nice to be able to be competitive every year and being able to run for national championships is all somebody can ask for at this level. We‘ve been able to do that now and we‘ve been in the top 10 for several years running.”

Sellers hopes he’s able to stay local for races next season, in part to help his local sponsors Clarence‘s Steakhouse and Danville Toyota. While he said it‘s hard to say if they‘ll go out and try to run for a national championship in 2021, his shop has three national titles in all — his, and one each by Matt Bowling and Philip Morris — so they know what it takes to make it happen if they decide to try again.

“As long as our sponsors and all the people that are helping us are willing to do that,” Sellers said.

“We‘ve been blessed. That‘s about the only thing you can say about it. We‘ve been fortunate and we‘ll look back at 2020 and see the bad and the good, but we had a lot of good and a lot to be thankful for.”