Berry’s average lap speed of 188.549 mph in Friday’s qualifying session gave him the pole over his teammate Justin Allgaier (188.289 mph). Allgaier had topped Friday’s practice session.
The pole is the second this season for Berry, with both coming in the last three races. It’s also the third of his career.
Berry said he and his No. 8 JRM team are determined to atone his race at Pocono two weeks ago, where he ended up 24th after starting on the pole.
“I’m just really proud of these guys on this No. 8 team. They’ve been working really hard,” said Berry, who has yet to earn a win this season. “I’m not going to lie, we let one get away two weeks ago and every single one of us have thought about it every day since then.
“We wanted to come here and finish what we started a couple weeks ago. Hats off to these guys and everybody at JR Motorsports. The cars are faster and driving better.”
Austin Hill ended up third fastest, Berry’s teammate and last week’s race winner Sam Mayer was fourth and Riley Herbst will line up fifth.
Completing the top-10 starting lineup are Chandler Smith, Carson Hocevar, Ty Gibbs, Sammy Smith and John Hunter Nemechek.
Inspection issue
During inspection on Friday, NASCAR confiscated the splitter from Cole Custer’s No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford for further inspection at its R&D Center in Concord, N.C. Any penalties will be announced next week.
Using another splitter on the car, Custer qualified 13th-fastest for Saturday’s race.
Cole Custer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Haas Automation Ford Mustang
Photo by: Gavin Baker / NKP / Motorsport Images