Josh Berry Explains His Success Surge After Losing No. 21 Ride

Josh Berry was 30th in NASCAR Cup Series points when he said in June he would not return to the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford in 2027. Since then, he has strung together six straight top-10 finishes and landed a new ride with Legacy Motor Club.

>Berry shared the news on a Ford Racing media call on June 10. Through the first 15 races, his best finish was ninth in the season-opening Daytona 500. His only other top 10 in that span came at Martinsville Speedway.

>A week later, the Wood Brothers named Jesse Love as Berry’s replacement. Love, 21, is the 2025 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion and drives for Richard Childress Racing in that series.

>The turnaround started at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July. Berry finished seventh there for his first top 10 in nearly four months.

>He followed with a fourth at Iowa and an eighth at Richmond. A season-best third came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Aug. 23, where he led 73 laps. Top-10 finishes at Daytona and Darlington pushed the streak to six races.

>It was the longest such run by a Wood Brothers driver since David Pearson in 1976. Berry explained the change on a podcast with NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck. He said many of his early races were spent racing for a future opportunity.

“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 that urgency is why he is holding nothing back now.

“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.”

Josh Berry Heads to Legacy Motor Club in 2027Legacy announced Berry as the driver of its No. 42 Toyota on Sept. 8. The move came six days after the team said it would part ways with John Hunter Nemechek.

>Berry will join Erik Jones and Riley Herbst in 2027, when Legacy runs three full-time cars for the first time. Berry said in the team’s announcement that he wanted to be part of where Legacy is headed.

“Legacy Motor Club is an organization that clearly has a vision for where they want to go, and I want to be part of that. I’ve had a chance to see this team up close and I know what they’re capable of. The way Jimmie has built this place — the people, the culture, the direction — it’s exactly the kind of environment I want to compete in.”

Team co-owner Jimmie Johnson praised Berry in the same announcement.

“Josh is a proven competitor who has earned everything through hard work and getting his hands dirty. What stands out about Josh is his ability to manage the big picture behind the wheel — his experience, perspective and wisdom. His career has been built on that foundation, and I know he will have a meaningful impact here. We’re thrilled to have him at Legacy.”

Legacy will be Berry’s third Cup team in four full-time seasons. Berry, 35, spent years in grassroots motorsports on Southeast short tracks before reaching the Cup Series. He drove the No. 4 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2024, replacing Kevin Harvick.

>After that team closed its Cup operation, Berry joined the Wood Brothers. He won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March 2025 in his fifth start with the team, his first career Cup win.

>Berry still has races left in the No. 21 this season. He was also part of a post-race exchange with Carson Hocevar at Bristol that Harvick addressed on his podcast this week.