LAS VEGAS — Josh Berry is a NASCAR Cup Series winner. That’s an honor he once thought he’d never get to bear.
The No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing driver fended off the field to win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, the 1.5-mile oval that played a crucial role in Berry’s stock-car racing story throughout the past four years.
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Berry, 34, spent over a decade building his career as a Late Model Stock short-track racer for JR Motorsports around the southeast, eventually earning the 2020 Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division 1 national championship. He made sporadic Xfinity Series starts for JRM from 2014-17, but racing a stock car in NASCAR’s highest ranks full-time seemed so far away for so long.
Then, an opportunity sprung for a part-time Xfinity schedule for JRM in 2021, in which he won twice — including a clutch substitute win at Las Vegas — finally propelling the Hendersonville, Tennessee native onto the national NASCAR scene.
“Five years ago, I felt like I was going to be a career short-track racer,” Berry reflected Sunday. “I wanted to be Bubba Pollard. I wanted to be the greatest on the short tracks. And JR Motorsports gave me an opportunity to go drive an Xfinity car, and we won a race, and then we won another race, and then I get an opportunity in a Cup car and that goes well. And here I am now.”
His first opportunity to drive a Next Gen car in the Cup Series came at — you guessed it — Las Vegas, where he was tasked with driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports in March 2023 when the series’ most popular driver, Chase Elliott, was sidelined by injury. The race didn’t go as he’d hoped, finishing 29th after qualifying 32nd.
“I flew home that night thinking that my career was over because of how I ran that day,” Berry said. “And it was a last-second, thrown-in-the-car (process). I had no preparation. And even thinking back to that day, they believed in me. And they gave me another week, right? And then we went and finished in the top 10. So just, it’s amazing the things that have to happen to get to this point.”
Indeed, just one week later, Berry hopped back into the No. 9 car and scored a top 10 at Phoenix Raceway. Two weeks after that, he finished second at Richmond Raceway in just his sixth career Cup start. That process and his quick adaptation to such a unique race car caught the eye of Jon Wood, now the team president of Wood Brothers Racing.
SHOP: Berry winner gear
“He drove in two or three different styles (of) race tracks, having never driven in a Next Gen car, and he ran competitively and finished well in two of the three,” Wood said. “I was sold from that point. And I didn’t know Josh from anybody. Like, I knew who he was, but I hadn’t been following him. And I didn’t want him to do well. Like, I was like, ‘Well, this isn’t supposed to be that easy. You’re not supposed to outrun us when you just hop in one of these things.’ So it stuck in my mind that week: This dude’s probably pretty good. But it never dawned on me that there would be an opportunity (to sign him).”
That changed once Berry left JRM’s Xfinity program after two full-time seasons from 2022-23 and its Chevrolet ties to go Cup racing in 2024 with Stewart-Haas Racing’s Fords. His rookie campaign in the No. 4 Ford featured notable highlights, like leading 32 laps at Iowa Speedway and 25 at Bristol Motor Speedway, both tracks shorter than 1 mile in length. But it also consisted of 10 DNFs in a tumultuous season for SHR, which shuttered its doors at the conclusion of 2024 for a full rebrand and sell-off of three of its four charters.
The good news for the Wood Brothers, though, is Berry was already in the Ford camp. As the team mulled plans for a new driver in 2025, Berry emerged as a top candidate. And five races into their new relationship, Berry has his first career Cup win in hand, has already tied his 2024 total of top-five finishes (two) and his two top 10s equate to half his 2024 total as well. Berry attributes the quick start to belief in Jon Wood, team co-owners Eddie and Len Wood as well as crew chief Miles Stanley — and also their belief in him.
“From the minute that I sat with everyone at this table and thought about this opportunity, it just felt right,” Berry said alongside Jon and Eddie Wood and Stanley. “It just felt like the right fit for me. But our performance at the start of the season has 100% exceeded my expectations. And I think that it just goes back to just trusting your instincts as a driver, that if you’re in a good situation and surrounded by good people and have fast race cars that you can do amazing things.”
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Through Wood Brothers Racing’s alliance with Team Penske, Berry is also engrained with Penske’s trio of racers, which includes defending and three-time Cup champ Joey Logano, 2023 title winner Ryan Blaney and 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric. Cindric, who maintains close relationships with many on the No. 21 team, was sure to visit Victory Lane and offer his congratulations — and explain why this win shouldn’t be such a surprise.
“He’s done each step of the way right and obviously had the car today and got the job done. It’s really that simple,” Cindric said. “It’s cool to see, and cool to see the guys in the shop that are excited; the Wood Brothers and everybody. So yeah, if I can’t win one of these and my other two guys can’t, he’s the guy. It’s a cool group because there’s a lot of first-time winners.”
The response to Berry’s victory has been overwhelmingly positive, including congratulatory messages from his 2024 crew chief Rodney Childers and JRM co-owner Kelley Earnhardt Miller. But that warm reception was even extended by his current competitors like Chase Briscoe and William Byron. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports driver, who led 10 laps in Sunday’s Vegas race and finished fourth, overlapped with Berry while the duo ran Late Model Stocks together for JRM. But their relationship predates even that.
“We grew up all the way back to iRacing days racing each other,” Byron said. “So, good for him. Happy for them. He’s definitely been a contender.”
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Berry also left a positive impact on Hendrick Motorsports. In addition to the five races he filled in for Elliott, Berry also subbed for an injured Alex Bowman in three races in 2023. Team president Jeff Andrews continues to hold Berry in high regard despite his departure elsewhere.
“Josh is just a solid guy,” Andrews told NASCAR.com. “We go back to a few years ago here when he filled in for us, and I can remember having a conversation with him when we needed him to drive this 9 car and just a solid guy, works hard. Obviously a great short-track background that spoke for itself. And Hendrick Motorsports, from our perspective, we couldn’t be more proud to see where Josh has ended up and win today. Very, very deserving. Just a good guy, a good race-car driver who works hard and has made his way up through the sport.
“To win on a mile-and-a-half track like this, I know it’s got to feel great for him, a great sense of accomplishment, and good for the sport. Congratulations to the Wood Brothers as well.”
Berry captured his first Xfinity Series win on the Martinsville Speedway half-mile back in 2021. But Vegas has played a special role in his career too. Now, it will forever hold a significant place in the story of his career as the site of his first NASCAR Cup Series win.
“Obviously, with my experience on the short tracks, you’d think that that’s where you’re going to win,” Berry said. “But if anything, I’ve learned in this sport you never know what day can be your day, and you just have to put your head down and be there to capitalize. And Miles and this whole 21 team brought a great race car, and we found ourselves in position.”
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