Josh Berry during pre-race driver introductions for the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. — After an excellent start to a very promising year for the Wood Brothers organization and their famed No. 21 car, Josh Berry looked like he would continue the team’s momentum throughout the majority of the regular season and into the playoffs. However, that was unfortunately not meant to be.
Berry showed flashes of speed after his big win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the spring, but the playoff push that the Penske affiliate was looking for was not in their race car. In the first race of the Round of 16, Berry’s day ended when he went spinning in Turn 1 on the very first lap of the Southern 500. At Gateway the following week, the veteran driver made contact with Chase Elliott in the opening laps of the Enjoy Illinois 300, sending Berry straight into the outside wall in Turn 2, putting the driver in a must-win scenario for Bristol.
The bad luck continued during the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, where rubber buildup was a significant factor for all cars in the field that evening. In Berry’s case, the buildup got so bad that his No. 21 went up in flames, ending all NASCAR Cup Series championship hopes for the former NASCAR Weekly Series champion.
However, the season as a whole is not over yet for drivers outside of the playoffs, like Berry is as of now. Several races remain on the 2025 calendar, and the potential to steal a win from a playoff driver looms for all teams that missed out on the dream of holding the cup in Phoenix later this year.
Berry and his No. 21 crew put their heads down and went right back to work when the Cup Series returned to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this past weekend for the Mobil 1 301. From the waving of the green flag on Sunday afternoon, Berry showed the pace to run with the playoff drivers who topped the leaderboard. Qualifying the Wood Brothers machine in third place was a welcome start to the weekend.
Everything was looking fine for the No. 21 until Lap 82, when Shane van Gisbergen clipped the left-rear of the Motorcraft Ford Mustang, sending Berry sliding down the beginning of the backstretch. But with nothing left to lose, Berry and his team did not let another issue faze them.
Josh Berry during pace laps for the Mobil 1 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
After 180 laps of building his way back up through the pack, the No. 21 car sat firmly in the third position. On Lap 254, a miracle happened for the veteran driver, when Cody Ware crashed in the middle of Turns 1 and 2. Most of the lead lap cars, including Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, who had led almost every lap of the race up to that point, came down pit road for service. Berry, along the with No. 9 of Elliott, stayed on the racetrack.
On the following restart, with 41 laps remaining, Berry quickly jumped out to the lead. His Ford Mustang had strong pace. That was evident early on in the show, but his Penske teammate in Blaney had the best advantage in the closing laps – better tires on a short track.
Blaney easily went by the No. 21 three laps into the final green flag run, and it looked like Berry had lost everything he once had in his race car. But something clicked inside the No. 21 around Lap 275, and Berry slowly but surely chipped away at the No. 12’s lead.
Berry had opportunities to get a run at Blaney, but the tires were steadily starting to go away on the Wood Brothers ride. Blaney slowly put a large gap between him and the No. 21, enough to score his third win on the 2025 campaign and move himself into the Round of 8 in a few weeks.
Even with a win at Berry’s fingertips, Berry was really impressed with what he and his team were able to do with the adversity they had been facing throughout the past few weeks of the postseason.
“It was definitely an awesome day. We had a really good car,” said the driver out of Hendersonville, Tennessee. “I was honestly surprised. I was a little worried when he (Blaney) got around me as quickly as he did, but it kind of seemed like it leveled out, and I was able to keep him honest at the end.”
Berry knew he was not going to catch Blaney at the end, but he wanted to give it his all with nothing on the line for their team for the first time since March of this year. On top of that, the late-race call to stay out was forced because of the earlier accident with van Gisbergen.
“We were down a set of tires after the spin, so I think it kind of forced our hand. We didn’t want to take our last rights (tires) at least that early, you know with that many laps left. But we still made the most of it.”
Berry and Wood Brothers Racing now look ahead to Kansas with the goal to continue the top echelon speed the No. 21 found at Loudon, with the hope of that propelling the famed organization back into victory lane for the 102nd time.
