Ryan Blaney says Josh Berry 'lost his mind' in Martinsville incident

Ryan Blaney finished 35th, 59 laps down in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway after contact with Josh Berry on Lap 252 destroyed the front end of his No. 12 Team Penske Ford. 

It was, in essence, a run-in between two teammates, given how closely the No. 21 Wood Brothers team works with Penske, but there was no brotherly love shown from Blaney to Berry post-race.

After a tap from Blaney to Berry in turn 3, Berry appeared to heavily check up on the exit of turn 4, which caused the hood of Blaney's car to cave in.

"That run before that happened, I thought we finally had gotten pretty good," Blaney told NBC. "Was passing some cars and running the front group down a little bit. The deal in 3 and 4, just barely, accidentally tapped the 21 and he decided to slam on the brakes and end our day. Don't really know why after just a little tiny bit of contact, not even on purpose.

"Just lost his mind. Unfortunately ended our day."

The 35th-place finish officially eliminated Blaney from championship contention. He goes into the Nov. 8 finale at Homestead seventh in the standings, 133 points back of leader Kyle Larson but with an opportunity to climb as high as third depending on the results of next week's race.

Josh Berry's perspective

For Berry, the incident marred what was otherwise a banner day. The short track ace finished fourth.

"Obviously, Ryan got into me pretty good there," Berry told NBC. "I got out of the groove trying to save it. We got together."

Sunday's race was the first at Martinsville since NASCAR announced in June that it would be softening the front bumpers of Cup Series cars. The incident between Blaney was one of two on the day that saw another driver seemingly brake-check one of their competitors, as a similar accident involving Carson Hocevar and Austin Cindric out of the race.