Jeff Gordon praises Berry after runner-up finish in substitute role

Berry, a regular in the Xfinity Series, has been subbing for an injured Chase Elliott at oval tracks since Las Vegas.

The 32-year-old made his fourth appearance behind the wheel of the No. 9 Chevrolet at Richmond, and at first, it was a struggle. He started deep in the field and forward progress proved difficult.

While his Hendrick Motorsports teammates dominated large portions of the race, he was left to fight through the mid-field. He even went for a spin during the second stage, with help from Ryan Blaney.

Berry wasn’t alone at the No. 9 HMS team in his role of a substitute. Interim crew chief Tom Grey is standing in for regular crew chief Alan Gustafson, who is serving his four-race suspension after Hendrick Motorsports was found to have modified single-source supplied parts.

Grey made a gutsy call to run long during the final stint of the race, hoping for an advantageous caution to gain some track position. They got just that and Berry suddenly found himself in a position to contend for the race win.

Berry restarted on the front row beside Kyle Larson, and although he was unable to challenge the former Cup Series champion, he held strong in second position.

Ultimately, he brought home a runner-up result, shattering his previous best result of tenth at Phoenix.

“Man, this is really cool,” said Berry post-race, who was all smiles. “I have to give all the credit to this NAPA team. Tom (Grey, interim crew chief), Alan (Gustafson, full-time crew chief) remotely, of course, and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They made some great calls. When we got some clean track, we weren’t running bad lap times. I’m so glad they tried something different at the end to get us up front. I felt like we were decent the whole time. Just getting in cleaner air (was key). We were free to race with Kyle.

“Man, what a huge day. You know, to come here and start in the back, no practice, qualifying, get spun out, work through the field like that, just second place, it’s pretty cool.”

Gordon impressed by Berry’s performance

Jeff Gordon, the Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, had nothing but praise for Berry after the race.

“I feel like he has done a great job every time he has been in the car,” said Gordon. “You start to see a bit of a trend with him. Of course, we didn’t do him any favors by him starting 30th today.

“We made…