“There’s No Point” – Axed Ford Star Reveals the Secret Behind His Sudden Cup Series Redemption

Four days before his 100th career NASCAR Cup Series start, Josh Berry broke his own bad news. On a Wednesday Ford media call, with that milestone weekend at Pocono still days away, he told reporters he wouldn’t be back in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford in 2027. Sitting 30th in points through 15 races in 2026, Berry wasn’t shocked to hear the decision. But now, his recent surge has many asking a simple question: did Wood Brothers make its decision too early?

Berry recently sat down with longtime NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck on his podcast and explained what has actually changed.

“Truthfully, a lot of times you’re not exactly sure what you’re fighting. You know, you’re feeling a few different things and you know, you lack track position. There’s all these different sides to it. Then you add that in with a lot of those races were spent more or less racing for an opportunity, like not having opportunity, so that adds another layer of urgency,” Berry said.

“Feeling like there’s no point of leaving anything on the table necessarily, and I think that’s pretty much the extent of it and obviously I think it gets you know brought up way more just because you’re running up front. Yeah, that makes sense.”

Berry climbed into his first go-kart at age eight in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Years later, his talent in online racing caught the attention of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who befriended Berry through the iRacing community and eventually gave him a chance to test a JR Motorsports Late Model Stock Car. Years of short-track dominance and a strong run in NASCAR’s second-tier O’Reilly Series eventually earned him a promotion.

Stewart-Haas Racing hired him in 2023 to replace the retiring Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Ford starting in 2024. But when Stewart-Haas Racing shut down its NASCAR operation after the 2024 season, Berry needed a new landing spot. Wood Brothers Racing, NASCAR’s oldest active team, gave him one, and in just his fifth start with the No. 21, Berry won the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March 2025, his first Cup Series victory.

Hopes were high, but they quickly crashed. Besides a lone ninth-place finish at Daytona to begin the season, Berry finished 26th or worse in 11 of 15 races in 2026, including four DNFs, and his only other top-10 finish came at Martinsville Speedway. Jesse Love, the 21-year-old 2025 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion who had been racing for Richard Childress Racing, was announced as Berry’s replacement in the No. 21.

Then suddenly, at Indianapolis in July, Berry finished seventh, his best result of the season to that point and his first top-10 in nearly four months. He followed that seventh-place finish with a fourth at Iowa and an eighth at Richmond, averaging a 6.3 finish across the three-race stretch. By early September, he’d reeled off six consecutive top-10 finishes, capped by a season-best third at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on August 23, where he led 73 laps. It was a streak the Wood Brothers hadn’t seen since David Pearson recorded six consecutive top-10 finishes for the team in 1976.

So, a week after Legacy Motor Club released John Hunter Nemechek from its No. 42 Toyota, the team turned to Berry, announcing on September 8 that he’d take over the ride beginning in 2027.

“An organization that clearly has a vision for where they want to go,” Berry said of his new team, which will run him alongside Erik Jones and Riley Herbst as Legacy fields three full-time cars for the first time in its history, with his debut set for Daytona in February. Legacy co-owner Jimmie Johnson called Berry “a proven competitor who has earned everything through hard work,” while the team has also retained the crew chief who will lead Berry’s No. 42 in 2027. Crew chief Chais Eliason, promoted to lead the No. 42 pit box this September, will stay in that role through 2027.

That said, Berry still has races remaining with Wood Brothers this season, but with his 2026 playoff hopes over, he has little incentive to back down on the track. Asked recently whether he cared who he raced into while chasing one more win, he told a reporter flatly: “I don’t care.”

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