Incredible Grass Explosion!

In March of this year, the Nascar Xfinity series raced at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and there was a pretty fascinating grass-related incident that occurred with driver Josh Berry. After recovering from a spin, his car was heading straight for the pit entrance. Those who follow Nascar know that there is a speed limit for pit road, and regardless of the situation, if you speed on pit road there is a penalty attached.

Josh had a decision to make - head for pit road and take the speeding penalty, or attempt to dodge the entrance, drive across the grass, and get back on the track and back in the race.

He chose the latter.

Well, there was a problem with the infield grass. It was built up too high on the soil. So when Josh’s car made impact, it created an imaculant explosion of turf and sent the front end of the car into the air.

There are multiple reasons to feel bad about what happened here. First, this was incredible driving by Josh Berry, and the result was just a bummer. If the transition from the track to the grass would have been smooth he would’ve been able to potentially finish the race. Second, I feel bad about the damage to the grass and the extra work that was required of the grounds crew, not just to repair the turf, but after the race they began work on smoothing out the transition area.

Major props to the grounds crew at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Regardless of whether or not this incident happened, that grass was on point!

This story is an excerpt from episode 3 of The Cherish Each Mowment podcast. Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform.