Berry Chasing Pre-Playoff Surge & Richmond Success

Josh Berry in action at Richmond Raceway. (Gavin Baker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

RICHMOND, Va. – With an early-season win that locked Josh Berry and Wood Brothers Racing into the playoffs in March, the team has had the luxury of circling a track both to experiment, and also potentially contend for a win, at near the end of the regular season.

That place for the venerable organization is Richmond Raceway, site of Saturday night’s Cook Out 400.

The Wood Brothers have two Cup Series wins at the long-running, now three-quarter-mile paved oval, but the most recent one came in a wild 1986 race won by Kyle Petty.

Their short-track program has had qualifying pace this year, with three top-15 starts, and now Berry wants to convert that speed into results as he prepares for the postseason.

“I’m excited for Richmond. I think I’ve had some good runs there in the past in the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series. I feel like it should be a good opportunity for us to run well, and it’s definitely a place we’ve had circled for a while,” said Berry. “The biggest thing we’re looking at right now is the qualifying draw and how that worked out.

“It’s unfortunate, but we’re just going to have to make the most out of that and probably get creative in the race to get some track position,” he said. “I feel like if we have a good car, we should be up front.”

Due to an all around lackluster weekend at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l, Berry lined up as one of the first qualifiers in Friday’s qualifying session.

He finished 35th last time out after starting the race in 24th, and so far this season, it’s hard to stay up front in time trials due to natural track changes and uncertainty on where the bar is for a quick lap.

With his excellent past history at Richmond, which includes a runner-up two years ago, Berry isn’t concerned about getting toward the front. It’s just a matter of how long it will take to get there, in his mind.

“Richmond is kind of a place where the long run matters, so you probably put a little less focus on the opening laps,” he said. “A lot of places we go when the track is new, it’s a great opportunity to push the car and get a feel for what it’s going to drive like in qualifying. But Richmond, with how many long runs we have, I think the majority of us just try to focus on long runs anyway.

“I’m not really too worried about our car’s fire-off speed. I want to make sure it drives well and hopefully has a good long run pace.”

Josh Berry (right) looks over SMT data at Richmond Raceway Friday. (Gavin Baker/Nigel Kinrade Photography)

In three Richmond Cup Series starts, the 34-year-old hasn’t finished worse than 14th, with a second-place result for Hendrick Motorsports in 2023 while filling in for Chase Elliott due to injury.

In 2022 and 2023, Berry qualified 30th and was able to drive his way through the field. With the difficulty of passing this season in the Cup Series, it’s those experiences that he’ll lean on as he navigates 300 miles in the Commonwealth.

In his time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Berry also earned three top 10s at the track. With the Wood Brothers in short-track races this season, he has two top 15s in three attempts, all making for a solid foundation for success.

Richmond and then the Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway regular season finale can become a springboard for Berry into the first round of the playoffs. He feels confident already about the opening Round of 16 races in September.

“At Darlington, we were really solid in the spring. We unfortunately got into an incident, but we ran well there last year with Stewart-Haas Racing,” said Berry. At [World Wide Technology Raceway] last year, we had a good race then blew a tire. I haven’t raced there a lot, but I still feel like that should be good for us, since the Penske cars were really strong there.

“Then at Bristol [Motor Speedway] we had a solid race in the spring. I feel like we can make our cars better off of what we had there,” he added. “I feel like those are three good opportunities for us, it’s just going to come down to unloading well to execution and I think we’ll be in the hunt.”

That climb towards serious postseason contention goes through Richmond first, where Berry hopes to deliver the Wood family another standout moment.

Coverage of the Cook Out 400 from Richmond is slated for Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.