Josh Berry continues to overachieve in one area despite inconsistent finishes

The expectations were not extremely high for Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry coming into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

After all, the organization only had two wins since 2017, and Berry was entering his second full-time season after competing for a Stewart-Haas Racing team that was shutting its doors after the 2024 campaign.

Despite the unknowns and lack of expectations, Berry made a late pass over Trackhouse Racing's Daniel Suarez with 14 laps to go and would go on to win his first career Cup Series race at Las Vegas on March 16.

He led 18 laps in that race and has been in front for a total of 169 laps this season. According to NASCAR Insights, that is the third-most laps the Wood Brothers have led in an entire season in the past 43 years.

Only 11 of the 36 races have been run, so it is entirely possible that Berry leaps ahead of Buddy Baker (174) and Ryan Blaney (301) in the laps led column. His win came at a 1.5-mile track in Las Vegas, but he has been in front on superspeedways and the half-mile Martinsville Speedway.

A major area of concern for Berry and the No. 21 team has been inconsistent finishes, particularly due to three DNFs through the 11 races. Since his Las Vegas win, Berry has not finished inside the top 10 despite leading 95 laps during that time.

Before his Stage 2 spin from the lead at Texas, Berry seemed to be in command of the race and on his way to contending for another win on a 1.5-mile track. Instead, his 32nd-place finish was his third DNF of the season, dropping his average finish to 22.5 and moving him down three spots to 24th in the standings. 

By virtue of his win, Berry is currently locked into the playoffs along with the other six race winners this season. The only way he would get knocked out is if there happens to be more than 16 winners this season, which seems unlikely at this point given the success drivers like points leader William Byron (one win), Kyle Larson (two wins), Denny Hamlin (two wins) and Christopher Bell (three wins) have had.

The encouraging news for Berry is the speed he has had at multiple tracks. His win may have come at an intermediate circuit, but the pace in the No. 21 Ford has been legit up to this point.

As the Cup Series reaches its one-third mark of the schedule following this Sunday's race at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Berry should have another solid opportunity to be in contention.

If he can have a mistake-free day, the results should begin to show for a driver and team that have already overachieved in the win column and laps led department.