Unless you’ve just cashed in a winning lottery ticket or stumbled across a genie in a bottle, it’s safe to say Josh Berry has had a better week than the rest of us.
Berry, the short-track savant handpicked by Dale Jr. himself, rolled into Las Vegas last week and bagged his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series win. And before anyone tries to slap an asterisk on it—no, this wasn’t some lucky fuel-mileage gamble, a white-knuckle superspeedway demolition derby, or a rain-shortened technicality. No, Berry’s win was a proper, hard-fought triumph built on raw determination, flawless pit work, and the kind of grit that makes legends out of underdogs.
Since then, Berry and the Wood Brothers have been on a whirlwind victory tour, collecting accolades from Ford, fellow competitors, rival teams, and even fans who normally wouldn’t give them a second glance. But more importantly, when Josh Berry rolled into Homestead this weekend, he did so with a brand-new title: NASCAR Cup Series winner.
“It’s been cool,” Berry said Saturday at Homestead. “I mean, I’m obviously still kind of soaking that part of it in getting started here at Homestead, but just winning races in the Cup Series is a big deal and it’s so incredibly difficult, so I’m not taking that moment for granted.”
Berry’s Vegas triumph essentially punches his ticket to the NASCAR Playoffs—barring some apocalyptic scenario involving the second coming of Jesus. The Wood Brothers were in last year’s postseason too, thanks to a win from Berry’s predecessor, Harrison Burton. But that one came at Daytona, which, let’s be honest, is a bit like winning a roulette spin—exciting, but not exactly a display of dominant racecraft. Predictably, they didn’t last past the first round. This time, however, things could play out very differently.
With Berry behind the wheel, the Wood Brothers have something they haven’t had in a while—a driver with a bit more seasoning and a team that’s actually showing some muscle. The Vegas win wasn’t a fluke; it was an exclamation point, following a strong fourth-place finish at Phoenix the week before. You’d think that kind of momentum would have Berry beating his chest, calling his shot, maybe throwing around a few championship predictions. But no, that’s not his style.
“I think, for me, it’s an experience side of things,” he says. “Like taking all this in for the first time. I just won my first race on Sunday, so experiencing that was a big deal.”
Brash confidence? Trash talk? Not happening. Berry isn’t about to start strutting around the ring like a WWE star.
“I’ve just never been one as a driver to be real specific with setting goals because your performance on track and how you feel like it’s going what really matters to you most personally,” Berry says. “I mean, you can run well and have a mistake on pit road and not get the finish, but you still ran well, so, to me, I’ve always had the most success of just taking it week to week and preparing the best I can each week and taking that approach and not necessarily worry about as much of the finishes, but more so how you run.”
In other words, put in the work, get the car dialed in, and the results will take care of themselves.
“I think if we can establish that and be more competitive and up front and have good Saturdays and race well, that the opportunities are going to come.”
So don’t expect Josh Berry to start throwing verbal jabs or suddenly anoint himself a championship contender. He’ll just keep doing what he’s done his whole career—winning races the hard way.
“I want to keep pushing forward and keep getting better and have more opportunities at this, so I don’t feel like this is the last one,” Berry says. “I don’t think that Sunday was considered probably an upset, at least, but not a fluke with how we’ve been running and I feel like we can keep getting better and keep pushing forward and have other opportunities.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.