Josh Berry’s journey to the NASCAR Cup Series is one of the most unique we’ve ever heard of, and he owes a lot of gratitude to Dale Earnhardt Jr. for helping him along the way.
Many people know Berry from his time with JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, but being a driver wasn’t necessarily in his future when he first joined the team. Earnhardt Jr. knew Berry could be a driver, but when he first joined JR Motorsports it was as a mechanic.
On the latest episode of Harvick’s Happy Hour, Berry sat down with Kevin Harvick to talk in detail about his journey that got him to where he is today and how it shaped him along the way.
“I said if I was going to move here I needed money to live, so they offered me a job. So they offered me a job at JR Motorsports, which was as a mechanic in the Xfinity shop. And when I say mechanic, I mean it loosely. I washed the cars after the races, I took the cars apart. I did pit practice, so I had to clean all the wheels on the pit practice cars,” Berry recalled. “Then I lived with Willie Jackson and Brenda for a few months. They’re Dale’s father-in-law and mother-in-law. I lived with them for about a month until the apartment I was going to rent became available. It’s a funny story, too.
“So I worked at the Xfinity shop, kind of a bottom-of-the-line job, sweeping floors at night and working on Late Model cars at night. Eventually, I got to work full-time with the Late Model team, and I did that for probably two years, and then eventually I moved on to just working full-time with the Late Model team, and obviously driving Late Model cars full-time. The first year, it was kind of part-time here and there, and then it kind of grew into racing Late Models full-time and working there as well.”
As we all know, Berry wasn’t always guaranteed to be where he is now with Stewart-Haas Racing. It took a lot of hard work, dedication and sleepless nights, but he’d be willing to tell you it was all worth it in the end.
With Stewart-Haas Racing shutting down after his first season with the team, Berry already has a job lined up to take over for Harrison Burton in the Wood Brothers’ famed No. 21 car for 2025. That will give Berry another chance to remain in the Cup Series.
When fans hear Josh Berry talk, it’s impossible not to root for him, and there’s bound to be a roaring cheer whenever he scores a Cup Series victory.
