For Josh Berry, the question has never been – or never should have been – about the driver. The question has always been about the car. In NASCAR, particularly at the Cup level, you can’t win without a competitive car.
Kyle Larson can’t win without a competitive car. Christopher Bell, the sport’s new golden boy, can’t win without a competitive car. Neither can Joey Logano, or Denny Hamlin, or anybody else you want to name.
Kyle Busch has proven that. A big-time winner at Joe Gibbs Racing, one of the sport’s two elite teams, Busch’s career has faltered since his move to Richard Childress Racing. And that’s not because of Busch. It’s because RCR simply doesn’t have the personnel or resources to compete with JGR or Hendrick Motorsports or Penske Racing and maybe some others as well.
Berry, who shocked almost everybody by winning at Las Vegas last Sunday, has mostly been on the fringes of the racing world. He’s a hard worker who has never really been given a fair chance to succeed. Last year, he finally got a full time ride at Stewart-Haas, but Stewart-Haas was falling apart; had been falling apart for a number of years, and was no longer relevant in the Cup series.
But before he got a shot with Stewart-Haas, and with almost no experience in a Cup car, Berry had shown that given an opportunity he could make the most of it.
In 2023, Berry was called on as a replacement driver at Hendrick Motorsports. Now jumping into somebody else’s car and working with somebody else’s team – and being successful doing it is almost impossible in NASCAR. And this is especially true at a place like Hendrick, which fields cars capable of winning races every week.
When you put a replacement driver in a good Cup car, what you hope for is that he simply finishes the race. There are no expectations beyond that, which is why what Berry did is so exceptional.
First, Hendrick put him in Chase Elliott’s Chevy after Elliott was injured in a snowboarding accident. Over five races, Berry’s finishes included a 10th at Phoenix and a second at Richmond, far better than anybody could have anticipated.
Later, when Alex Bowman suffered a back injury, Hendrick called on Berry again. And again, Berry was up to the task. Berry subbed for Bowman in three races, recording a 10th at Dover, and also ran the All-Star race after winning the open to get in the main event.
Now none of this was a secret. Everybody knew about it, and everybody shrugged it off. So when Stewart-Haas folded at the end of 2024, there was Chase Briscoe, considered the prize catch of the Stewart-Haas group, headed to JGR. And there was Ryan Preece, headed to Roush-Fenway-Keslowski, which was getting strong support from Ford. And there was Noah Gregson, headed to Front Row Motorsports, another team Ford was heavily invested in.
And there was Berry, stuck with Wood Brothers Racing, once one of the premier teams in Cup but at a dead end for the last 20 years or so. Nobody in the garage gave Wood Brothers a second thought.
Other than on superspeedways, tracks where anybody can win if they are lucky enough to avoid the “big wreck” and happen to be in the right lane at the right time on the last lap, Wood Brothers had done nothing.
The last time the Wood Brothers won a race on a track other than a superspeedway before Berry’s win at Vegas was 2017, when Ryan Blaney won at Pocono. And the last time before that was 2001, when Elliott Sadler wonn at Bristol.
But with beefed up support from Penske Racing, it looks like the Wood Brothers may have something going. In addition to winning at Vegas, Berry also scored a fourth at Phoenix in their car, so maybe they’re for real.
For years, Berry has been ignored. But as he proved in his brief stint with Hendrick, put Berry in a competitive car and he will compete, and maybe now he’s in a competitive car. And if he is, you better move over, ’cause he’s coming through.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Homestead: 1-Tyler Reddick, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner at Homestead: Reddick. Top five, 1-Reddick, 2-Ryan Blaney, 3-Denny Hamlin, 4-Bell, 5-Chase Elliott.
Last week’s OGS Vegas picks: 1-Reddick, 2-Larson, 3-Blaney. Vegas winner: Josh Berry. OGS season record: 1-2.
OGS Competition Index top 10 after three races: 1-Bell, 114 points; 2-Berry 73, 3-William Byron 72, 4-Larson 41, Daniel Suarez 41; 6-Reddick 40, Hamlin 40; 8-Ryan Preece 37, 9-Kyle Busch 28, 10-Elliott 20.
OGS top 10 on intermediate tracks: 1-Berry 53, 2-Suarez 41, 3-Preece 30, 4-Byron 21, 5-Larson 11, Ross Chastain 11; 7-Austin Cindric 8, 8-Joey Logano 7, 9-Reddick 5, 10-Bubba Wallace 2.
