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Josh Berry: 2025 NASCAR Driver Profile

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | Last updated Jan 31, 2025 12:48 PM ET

[Editor’s note: The following article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 Racing Annual magazine. Order your copy online today, or buy one at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

This year marks a fresh start for Josh Berry. The Hendersonville, Tenn., driver moves to Wood Brothers Racing following a lackluster rookie campaign at Stewart-Haas Racing in its last throes as an organization.

In some ways, it’s a match made in NASCAR heaven. Both driver and team have blue-collar backgrounds rooted in short-track success. Berry came to NASCAR with an impressive short-track resume from tracks around the Southeast, a rare modern driver rising on talent alone after Dale Earnhardt Jr. discovered him.

In two full-time Xfinity Series campaigns with JR Motorsports, Berry made the playoffs in both seasons and won five times. Those wins came at Martinsville, Dover, and a pair of 1.5-mile intermediates in Las Vegas and Charlotte. He took to the intermediates quickly, and his overall skill led to a seat in the coveted No. 4 car at SHR following Kevin Harvick’s retirement.

Josh Berry 2024 stats

Starts	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	DNF
36	0	2	4	0	10

From the start, Berry’s 2024 season was a struggle. SHR trudged on admirably after announcing that its doors were closing at season’s end, but the organization’s overall performance was down significantly. For a rookie, it was a difficult path for Berry, even paired with crew chief Rodney Childers; none of his four top-10 finishes came after New Hampshire in June.

Cue 2025, and Berry lands with the Wood Brothers after the departure of Harrison Burton, who won one race for the team (Daytona) but whose overall performance was inconsistent. While the legendary organization may now have 100 wins, it’s badly in need of a reset to stick around for 101 and beyond. The hope is both driver and team find themselves at the right time to click.

Berry will have a new crew chief in Miles Stanley, a Team Penske transplant who lacks experience as a head wrench but brings engineering and strategy knowledge with him. Solid support remains for one of the sport’s few remaining single-car teams (Ford, Motorcraft, Quick Lane) along with their Team Penske alliance.

Both the No. 21 team and Berry have struggled with a lack of consistency, and that’s something they will need to improve on this year. Part of that came on track; Burton crashed out of six races last year while Berry posted 10 DNFs – nine of those due to crashes. Avoiding the avoidable will go a long way for the No. 21 this year.

Josh Berry career stats

Years	Starts	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles
3	48	0	3	7	0

Berry will be at his best on short tracks (his career average there is 14.5 compared to 22.5 overall). He and the team need to find a way to translate that success everywhere else.

The Wood Brothers organization, decades removed from its heyday, has developed in modern times into a seat where up-and-comers or those looking for a second chance find themselves. Think Burton, Ryan Blaney, Matt DiBenedetto, Paul Menard, and Trevor Bayne. Whether that pattern resumes with Berry is the question.

The Josh Berry file

Car: No. 21 Ford

Team: Wood Brothers Racing

Crew chief: Miles Stanley

Years with current team: 1st

Best points finish: 27 (2024)

Hometown: Hendersonville, Tennessee

Born: Oct. 22, 1990

Scouting report

Anonymous takes from drivers, crew chiefs, and assorted industry insiders:

“I think Josh was unfairly judged at times last year,” says a rival team owner. “Because of his age, he gets treated like a 20-year veteran and people forget he was racing Late Models four years ago. I would argue he is the most likely to break out this season now that he’s going to be driving cars out of the Penske shop.”

A former teammate says Berry is “really hands-on with the engineers and a natural leader” and that “he is going to be a valuable asset this year.”

A beat writer praises Berry for his professionalism: “Josh doesn’t take for granted being a Cup driver and doesn’t say no to anything away from the track. Everyone tells me he treats his homework and simulator time with the same diligence.”

A rival competitor calls Josh “the one racer that every other racer most wants to see succeed.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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