A top-five result for Josh Berry and The Wood Brothers on Sunday was no doubt cathartic.
The pairing has struggled throughout the year, both with having raw speed in their vehicles and with getting the finishes they’ve deserved, but Josh Berry, with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, was able to have his strongest drive of the season in Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway.
After a major slip – and incredible save – in Saturday’s qualifying session, Berry started 13th in the No. 21 Menards / Masterforce Tools Ford Mustang Dark Horse. When the green dropped, Berry quickly made progress forward – cracking the top-10 within the opening five laps of the race.
Team Penske, known in years past for its prowess on shorter, flatter racetracks, brought some fast vehicles to Iowa Speedway this weekend, and it showed, not just for the team’s tight-knit alliance partner in Wood Brothers Racing, but also with in-house drivers Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, who fought for spots inside the top five much of the race.
The real difference-maker, though, came in the final stage of Sunday’s event, when crew chief Miles Stanley brought Berry down pit road with 53 laps remaining and elected to put on just two tires – a strategy similar to that of race-winner Ty Gibbs. That netted the yellow-and-green No. 21 into fourth position, a place Berry managed to hold until the checkered flag was displayed.
“We had a really solid day,” Berry said post-race. “The car was great.”
“I feel like everybody on the No. 21 car did a really good job all weekend. We just unloaded well. I felt like we left a little bit out there for qualifying and definitely had great long run pace throughout the race. Just needed it to run long enough to show it, and we were finally able to do that and overcome a lot of things.”
It’s the first top-five result of the season for Berry and The Wood Brothers, and the first for the organization dating back to last September at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s also the first short track top-10 for the legendary organization since 2005.
This solid finish, no doubt, adds some value to Berry, who is without a NASCAR Cup Series seat at season’s end after Wood Brothers Racing elected to bring defending NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion Jesse Love into the fold in 2027. The 35-year-old driver is still in search of his place next season, and runs like these will no doubt make a difference.
“I felt like we were really good and definitely a good day,” Berry continued. “I love coming here. It makes it easy when your cars drive like they did this weekend, and we’ve just got to keep pushing. I think we’ve got a lot of good tracks coming up. Excited to get to Richmond next week and keep going after these good finishes.”
In 107 NASCAR Cup Series starts, Berry has recorded seven total top-five finishes – five of which have come on tracks 1.25 miles or shorter, and all seven coming on tracks 1.5 miles or shorter. With Richmond and New Hampshire on deck for the next two weeks, these races could be crucial for Berry when it comes to landing a seat in NASCAR for 2027.
