Josh Berry answers critics with Phoenix run

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Josh Berry heard the noise about if he belonged in the No. 9 car for Chase Elliott. 

After Hendrick Motorsports went 1-2-3 with William Byron, Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman earlier this month at Las Vegas and Berry finished 29th, doubters questioned the team keeping Berry in the car for the oval races until Elliott returns from his broken leg.

Of course, it was easy to criticize Berry without looking at the fact that he had not driven a Next Gen car until the Las Vegas weekend and that a throttle issue in that race also made his day more difficult.

With that hanging over him, finishing 10th Sunday at Phoenix felt special to Berry.

“I kind of feel like I received some unnecessary criticism last week for getting thrown into a really tough situation filling in for Chase, my first start in the Next Gen car, no preparation at all,” Berry told NBC Sports after the Phoenix race. 

“I feel like I kind of got held to the fire. We worked hard this week to remove doubt that we can do this, and I feel like we did that.”

Berry took advantage of four fresh tires on the final pit stop. He gained five spots over the last two cautions to help put all four Hendrick cars in the top 10.

Berry’s performance earned praise from Jeff Gordon, vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports.

“I’m really impressed with (Sunday’s) effort,” Gordon said after the race. “I was on the 9 box most of the race. It didn’t start off so great. To see them just continue to work through changes on the car, changes of the track conditions, just continue to push forward.

“Then he was mixing it up, man. On those restarts, he was right in the middle, three- and four-wide. I was a little bit nervous because they’re pretty deep in points and needed a solid