(Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
RICHMOND, Va. — Moments after Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway, Ross Chastain walked over to Josh Berry and embraced him.
“He’s so good. It’s not fair. You’re not supposed to go to show up to Cup and just be good,” Chastain said after the race. “It took me years [to get to Cup]. I train with the guy, I root for the guy. I almost dread the day that he’s full-time because he’s going to be another guy that I’m gonna have to beat very soon.”
Berry, who was in his fourth race substituting in the No. 9 car for the injured Chase Elliott, nearly pulled off a stunning upset despite running mid-pack for most of the afternoon. After staying out long on a green-flag run in the closing stage, Berry caught the caution that he needed. Tyler Reddick spun on Lap 373 and suddenly put Berry in contention to win.
Berry pitted under caution and followed teammate Kyle Larson off pit road in the second position. He got a bad jump on the restart, but William Byron crashed in Turn 1 with help of Christopher Bell to put the race immediately back under yellow.
The next restart went much better. Berry hung behind Larson, who eventually won, and crossed the line on Lap 400 in second place.
“That was the first time we had gotten some good clean air on new tires and the car was just a little too free,” Berry said. “We’d been back and forth on the balance all day. Being in traffic the whole time, you kind of adjust to that.
“These guys thought outside the box, and that’s what it takes in these races. You never know what can happen. If you do the same that everybody around you does, then you’re going to finish with them. They made a bold call.”
(Photo: Trish McCormack | The Podium Finish)
After rain led to the cancelation of practice and qualifying on Saturday, Berry started the race in 30th. He struggled to find pace in Stage 1 and spun early in Stage 2 with help of Ryan Blaney.
But when it counted the most, Berry and the No. 9 team came through.
“I’ve been learning a lot,” Berry said. “There’s so much more to learn, but days like [Sunday], it really does a lot for confidence … this is my fourth race in this car. No practice or qualifying definitely made it a little tougher.”
On March 3, Elliott suffered a fractured tibia while snowboarding in Colorado before the Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Elliott underwent surgery and was discharged the next day. According to a statement from Hendrick Motorsports, Elliott is expected to miss six weeks.
HMS scrambled and put Berry in the car at Las Vegas, where he finished 29th. The team kept Berry in the car at Phoenix Raceway and Atlanta Motor Speedway and he earned finishes of 10th and 18th, respectively. Sportscar racer Jordan Taylor drove the car at Circuit of the Americas before handing the keys back off to Berry at Richmond.
Before this season, Berry had just two Cup starts — both coming in 2021 with Spire Motorsports.
“He’s an extremely good race car driver and a great short-track racer,” Larson said after the race. “He has done a phenomenal job filling in. It’s been nice to have him a part of the debriefs. I feel like he describes his car really well. He seems like he is probably really easy to work with. I’m sure the 9 team probably feels he is easy to work with.
“I’ve enjoyed having him a part of our team throughout Chase’s injury. I hope whenever Chase comes back that Josh gets more opportunities going forward and good equipment because he is a Cup Series caliber driver. He has proven it just in the few races that he has ran.
“He is very, very deserving of being in the Cup Series, and he has worked extremely hard his whole career to get these opportunities.”
(Photo: Mitchell Richtmyre | The Podium Finish)
Berry, 32, took an untraditional route to get into the NASCAR touring series ranks. He drove late models for JR Motorsports for several seasons with sporadic starts in the Xfinity Series.
In 2021, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave Berry the opportunity he desired — and he capitalized. Berry made 12 starts driving the No. 8 car, and in his seventh race, won at Martinsville Speedway. When Michael Annett got injured later in the season, Berry made starts driving the No. 1 car and won at Las Vegas in the fall.
Berry went full-time in 2022 and won three times en route to a Championship 4 appearance. In seven Xfinity starts this season, Berry has six top 10s.
Despite Berry’s split focus in 2023, HMS is satisfied with the job he has done in the No.9 car.
“He has done a great job every time he has been in the car. You start to see a bit of a trend with him,” said Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. “When you look at his lap times, he is a guy that he gets in there, he feels the car out, he doesn’t take too many risks or chances until he knows what he has. Then you just start to see the lap times come and build and the run start to come together.
“It’s a much different car than what he is used to racing every weekend, and so there’s a lot of things that you have to adapt completely different to. I’m not even sure if Saturday is not hurting him for the Sunday races because the cars are so much different. The sidewall, tires, the rear input … Just from me going from an H-pattern transmission to sequential would throw me off. You know, big brakes. Car doesn’t have a lot of downforce. You can’t put the skew in it. There’s a lot of things that are different about what he is doing.
“Everybody has known his talent watching him in other forms of racing, late models, and the Xfinity Series. You have to put him in other cars with other teams and other people to really see how far he could take it. I think he’s got a future in the Cup Series.”
Berry will stay behind the wheel until Elliott returns, which will likely be in the coming weeks. Until then, Berry is just thankful to have the opportunity.
“I just got a lot of people to thank to get to this point,” Berry explained. “Really thankful just to have the opportunity to do this. It’s been really a dream come true.”
