Josh Berry
After years of climbing the NASCAR ladder, Josh Berry finally reached the summit. On June 21, 2023 in a press conference at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Berry was named the successor to future NASCAR Hall of Famer Kevin Harvick as the driver of the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in the NASCAR Cup Series.
It was a crowning moment for Berry, as the 33-year-old racer was flanked by Harvick, SHR co-owner Tony Stewart, crew chief Rodney Childers and vice president of competition Greg Zipadelli. It was a long way from when Berry was standing alone behind a desk working as a bank teller in his hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee, scrimping and saving to fund his racing ambitions as he attended Volunteer State Community College.
While winning six Legend Cars championships as a teenager, Berry was also competing in iRacing, and it was during some online racing sessions where Berry caught the attention of Dale Earnhardt Jr. The NASCAR Hall of Famer and owner of JR Motorsports was intrigued enough to see how Berry would fare on an actual racetrack, so Earnhardt offered up a Late Model test and Berry seized the moment.
He joined JR Motorsports’ Late Model program in 2010 – first as a parts washer – but soon Berry put those parts to work as a driver, amassing wins and championships. A track title in 2012 at Motor Mile Speedway near Radford, Virginia, followed by another track championship in 2014 at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway led to even bigger crowns, most notably the 2017 CARS Late Model Stock Tour championship and the 2020 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series championship. In all, Berry won more than 100 Late Model races and became the winningest driver in CARS Tour history.
“Throughout my teenage years, it was a fight just to keep racing, to get to the next race,” Berry said. “The timing of Dale and I getting together, that was crucial. If that doesn’t happen, I don’t know that I would’ve ever raced a stock car, or how much more I would’ve raced at all, just because racing had overextended us financially. And when you race that way, it’s hard to set any kind of a long-term goal. But your goals just change as you grow.”
With Earnhardt’s belief duly rewarded, the NASCAR icon double-downed on his faith in Berry by promoting his protégé to one of JR Motorsports’ Xfinity Series entries, albeit on a limited schedule. In just his 13th career Xfinity Series start, Berry won on April 11, 2021 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The site of one of Berry’s most prominent Late Model victories – the 2019 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 – became the site of his breakthrough NASCAR moment. A second Xfinity Series victory was earned on Sept. 25 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, setting the stage for a three-win campaign in 2022 where Berry competed for the championship in his first full-time season.
“When I was racing the Late Model, I just wanted to be the most badass short-track racer that you could be, and that’s how we progressed,” Berry said. “We won a ton of races, a CARS Tour championship and a national championship. We had a list of things that we wanted to accomplish and big races we wanted to win, and we’d go out there every time with the intent of checking things off that list. But the Xfinity Series win at Martinsville changed my career and allowed us to point toward a full-time season for 2022 where we competed for the championship.”
In just 95 career Xfinity Series starts, Berry racked up five wins, four poles and finished among the top-10 in more than half his races. Those exploits made Berry the go-to solution for Cup Series teams in need of an interim driver. He made 12 Cup Series starts spread across three different teams, with his best effort being an impressive second-place drive on April 2, 2023 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway while subbing for the injured Chase Elliott.
“It’s been very meaningful to get some opportunities in the Cup Series,” Berry said. “I’m proud of how they went, but I’m proud to drive a Cup car that’s got my name on it.”
Berry resides in Statesville, North Carolina, with his wife, Ginny, and their daughter, Mackenzie.
