Berry On Wood Bros. Dynamic: ‘It’s Been A Lot Of Fun’

HAMPTON, Ga. – How quickly things change as time rolls by.

A year ago, Josh Berry was a week away from announcing his deal with the Wood Brothers Racing. One full turn of the calendar later, he’s working to build momentum ahead of his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series postseason.

“It’s been a really good first season with the Wood Brothers. I’ve really enjoyed working with them and being a part of this organization,” said Berry. “Getting the win earlier this year at Las Vegas was a lot of excitement, but we’ve had a lot of good runs over the course of the year. There is a lot to learn from and look at, but I think we have a lot of room to improve and get a little more consistent.

“Heading into the playoffs, I think we’re a team that feels like if we go out and execute like we know we can, we’re going to be able to make our way through the playoffs a little bit,” he added. “But it’s been a lot of fun this year, for sure.”

The 34-year-old has two top fives and three top 10s to go along with his first career Cup Series win at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway in March. However, he is on pace for a career high finishing mark, with an average finish of 20th.

Through 17 races, this is the highest the No. 21 has finished on average for the Wood Brothers since 2021.

Berry continues the summer stretch headed into EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) with optimism, partially due to performance, but also due to the fact he has already won a race this season.

“I feel good going back to Atlanta. I felt like we had a really strong race in the spring. We led laps and won a stage. We were in the battle the whole race, so it’s been fun going back and reviewing that one with my team together and learning,” noted Berry.

“I’ve been working with my spotter on how to improve our communication a little bit better in preparation for this weekend,” he added. “Honestly the March race for us was really good and we found ourselves in position, so I feel if our car is as good as it was in the spring, we’ll have a chance at it.”

Part of that chance at winning comes from being able to work with both team and manufacturer teammates. Berry believes it’ll come down to communication between his technical teammates of Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano – as well as his Ford allies – to have a decent shot at victory lane.

“We are all together and we just have to try and take care of each other out there. I think if we can work well and keep our group together, it increases all of our odds. That’s the best way to look at it for us,” he explained. “For me, talking through those scenarios and opening up that conversation is something that I’ve never had with teammates and having those conversations.

“Every team always tells you that you all need to work with each other, but we do a really good job of communicating on how, why, and when to do things. I think that pays off in the results in the end.”

In his career since the track’s reconfiguration, Berry has four finishes outside the top 15 at Atlanta. But in his last two starts, he’s qualified fourth or better and led 56 laps before an accident in February.

The goal is to stay out of trouble Saturday night, and put everything together to have a successful weekend. That expands beyond Atlanta for the Hendersonville, Tenn., native, as midsummer tracks like Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway coming up have treated him well in the past.

The last two seasons at the ‘Monster Mile’, Berry earned a top 10 in relief of an injured Alex Bowman at Hendrick Motorsports in 2024, then was 14th last year at Stewart-Haas Racing. Adding to that, on the Xfinity Series side, Berry has two second-place finishes and a win during his time at JR Motorsports.

“From the first time I went there in the Xfinity car I felt really comfortable. I remember before I went there for the first time I was pretty intimidated going to a place like that and not knowing what to expect,” said Berry. “Even back then when I was making my first start there we didn’t have practice or qualifying either, so it’s a place that I took too well. We obviously got the win there with JRM. Their cars were always really strong there and I was able to carry that confidence into the Cup Series.

“Dover is probably my favorite track. It’s a lot of fun racing there. I’ve had some really good days, so it’s one I've circled coming up that I’m excited to get to.”

The confidence for Berry and the Wood Brothers extends even to the road courses. There are three road courses in the next nine races before the playoffs.

Despite a 26th place finish at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Berry said there were good things to take from the weekend, like qualifying 13th and being more competitive to start the race.

“I thought there were a lot of positives for us in Mexico. Obviously, the weather threw a wrench into everything to start the race, but practice and qualifying we were much more competitive. It seemed like our whole group was more competitive, we were faster,” he said. “We were all closer together, so there are positives to that. Chicago is tough. It’s a street course and it’s a really difficult racetrack. Sonoma is a totally different kind of road course, but we took a lot of positives out of Mexico.

“I think we’re working on the right areas and doing the right things. I think we’ve made our cars better and I feel I’ve adapted to the cars better, so I’m just excited to go run there and see how we do, stay out of trouble, execute and you can get a good finish in those races.”

That mantra is what Berry and company are looking to do headed into Atlanta this weekend. Good results never hurt as the summer rolls on and the sun begins to set on the regular season.

He sits 16th in the overall points, but ninth on the playoff grid after his spring win at Las Vegas.

“I feel like going into the opportunity that I had last year (at Stewart-Haas), there were high expectations for all (four) of us, and I think we all left that opportunity with the majority of the media questioning our ability as drivers, honestly,” Berry reflected. “We all had a lot to prove going into this opportunity, but we’re all going to different situations and, for the most part, all of us have thrived in those situations.

“To me, I don’t feel like expectations are that much different. The No. 4 car [replacing Kevin Harvick] had a lot of high expectations and they did a lot of amazing things, so, for me, I think it’s just about us going into new opportunities and thankfully they’ve worked out for most of us.”

Coverage of the Quaker State 400 from Atlanta begins Saturday night, June 28 at 7 p.m. ET, live on TNT, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.