Josh Berry said Wednesday that he isn’t any closer to figuring out his plans for next year than he was two months ago, when he made the announcement, during a media availability, that he wouldn’t return to Wood Brothers Racing in 2027.
The Hendersonville, Tennessee-native says he’s searching high and low for a new ride to slot into next season, and even though things have been progressing in a positive direction on-track with back-to-back top-10 finishes at Indianapolis and Iowa, they haven’t been moving that way in the boardroom.
“It’s been a little busier. We’ve had conversations; I don’t feel any closer than I did two months ago, if I’m being honest,” Berry said Wednesday during a Ford Racing media call. “Just we’ve had conversations, we’ve had good ones, we’ve had bad ones, we’ve had ones that we thought had potential, and we’ve had ones that we sat down, and they asked for three million dollars.”
“It’s been a little bit of a challenge working through all that, and to be honest, I’m at the point now, where I can’t do much else,” He continued. “Other than just trying to focus on Sunday’s and trying to have days like we’ve had the last couple of weeks, and honestly, I feel like if we can turn this deal around and run like we have the last three races, and find ourselves in the top-five and top-10 and nothing materializes, I kind of feel like it just shows more about the system then it does about me, and we’ll just work through that as it comes.”
The system in question isn’t a brand-new obstacle for Berry.
Now 35, Berry was a fresh-faced 23-year-old when he debuted in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with JR Motorsports in 2014 and made sporadic starts in NASCAR until 2021, when he FINALLY earned a multi-race stint with JR Motorsports (thanks to winning the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series championship in 2020).
With fantastic results, Berry was on the map; landing a role with Jordan Anderson Racing, and then another with Rackley WAR, and when Michael Annett was sidelined due to injury, the long-time short track racer got the nod to take over the No. 1.
The uncertainty of sponsorship, though, which had kept Berry from being a regular in NASCAR’s National Series for the better part of a decade, was still looming overhead. Berry got the nod to run full-time in 2022 and 2023 for JR Motorsports, but only after Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his race team were able to find him the sponsorship to do so.
Those two seasons propelled him to a stand-in role for Hendrick Motorsports, which caught the eye of Rodney Childers and Stewart-Haas Racing, and the rest, at least to this November, is history. Now, Berry sits in an uncomfortable, but unfortunately, familiar position; the current chapter is coming to an end, without the next chapter outlined.
Berry is open to opportunities in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series or NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, for sure, and even though everybody wants to drive in the NASCAR Cup Series, the short-tracker-turned-NASCAR-star says the landscape at all three levels is tough, but it’s especially tough, with very little wiggle room in Cup.
“I’m up for whatever,” Berry said when asked about a possible move to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series or NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. “It just seems like there’s not a lot of movement on the Cup side. People kind of have it mapped out of what they think is going to happen, and unless something changes that I don’t foresee happening, then it doesn’t seem like there are very many opportunities on the Cup side.”
“That leads me back into what I was saying earlier with the O’Reilly Series and the Truck Series being very heavily dependent on the funding that you have to kind of put those deals together and make them work. That limits your options pretty quickly, so we’re just trying to keep doing what we’re doing and working on it. We’ve gotten some good help from everybody at KHI and making those phone calls and helping try to navigate and figure out what’s out there.”
Even in this time of extreme uncertainty, Berry remains positive that putting together solid results in the NASCAR Cup Series – like he’s done the last two weeks – with Wood Brothers Racing in the 13 weeks that he has left, can only help his cause.
“I still think the results matter, for sure. I think when you get to that level, I don’t know how they don’t matter. If we’re able to turn this deal around and end this deal stronger than what we started out, I’m sure that certainly helps,” Berry added.
With Richmond and New Hampshire next on the docket for the NASCAR Cup Series, Berry will look to put the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse at the front of the pack, turn some heads, and hopefully get closer to putting pen to paper on a brand-new contract for 2027… It’s just a matter of with whom.
