By Luis Torres, Staff Writer/Photographer
Entering this weekend, Josh Berry was one of several full-time drivers who has had a rough three-race start to their 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. After 312 grinding laps in the Arizona desert, Berry turns his campaign around with a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
Considering the day Berry had highlighted by avoiding wrecks on three separate occasions and overcoming a rough pit stop that sent him to the back of the field, Berry couldn’t be prouder of his Wood Brothers Racing team to get a strong result.
“I am proud of everyone on this No. 21 team and thank you to eero for coming on board. Our car was really solid. It wasn’t mistake free,” said Berry. “We had an issue on pit road with the left rear, but we got backed up and got the wheel tight. We had some really good restarts.
“We had one toward the end that didn’t go our way, but pretty much every one of them we were able to move forward and fight and claw. It’s a credit to everyone on the No. 21 team and Ford and Wood Brothers Racing and Team Penske. It was a lot of fun.”
Berry’s No. 21 eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse arrived in Arizona 32nd in points with finishes of 25th or worse in each race playing a pivotal role on his early season struggles. Primarily, a direct result of crashes that ended his afternoon twice already.
After qualifying fourth for his second top-five start of the season, Berry showcased that the Wood Brothers Racing team can be sporty in spite of people pointing out that he’s trailing Jimmie Johnson, who only ran the Daytona 500, in the drivers’ standings.
In Stage 1, Berry ended up silencing some of the doubters with a solid sixth-place outing after the opening 60 laps. He reported over the radio that he lacked right rear grip with a variance of battling a loose car and running tight in the middle.
Changes were made to fix some of the concerns, but it became a game of escaping the madness from that point forward.
It began in the pits when the left rear of Berry’s Ford wasn’t properly tightened and was about to exit. Berry had to urgently stop the car and drive it backwards to avoid severe consequences such as avoiding a potential loose wheel that would’ve sent a couple crew members on vacation for a few weeks.
Due to the costly yet alerting pit stop, Berry was outside the top-30 and had a lot of work to do in the second stage, but the madness kept on rolling. However, after the race was over, Berry felt that it kept him from really being in the mix with the leaders.
“I hate that we had that mistake on pit road with the left rear that kind of knocked us back,” said Berry. “But we were able to fight back up there and had some really good restarts.”
Multiple times throughout the day, Berry could’ve seen his race turn upside down as he had a rather unideal front row seat of all the mayhem that happened at Phoenix.
On Lap 99, Berry had a strong restart before an 11-car crash happened in Turn 2 that ended several drivers’ days. All Berry saw was chunks of tire rubber, smoke and the passenger window of Chase Briscoe, but was able to get by unharmed and continued his race.
“Few things. I made it and that was a f—ing hell of a restart,” said Berry immediately after avoiding the crash.
No more chaos ensued in Stage 2 as Berry rallied back to finish 10th and collected a total of six stage points for the day. Compared to the opening stage, turning wasn’t much a concern, but his No. 21 Ford still felt loose at the exit of the corners.
Then in the final stage, Berry escaped from being collected in other people’s messes on two occasions.
The first being on Lap 215 when the lapped car and NASCAR Cup Series debutant Katherine Legge was driving down on the apron but ended up going across the track, right on Berry’s path.
Legge lost control after making slight door contact with Berry in Turn 2. While Berry escaped, Daniel Suarez wasn’t so lucky and crashed into Legge.
Fast forward to 46 laps remaining when Berry again witnessed chaos in front of him. This time, it was Bubba Wallace who saw his day go up in smoke after a brake rotor failure sent him into the Turn 1 wall and ended his day.
Berry was running in 12th at the time when he saw Wallace’s No. 23 Leidos Toyota puff smoke on the rear and get by without any detriment.
Three different incidents, no true harm to Berry’s day and it was ultimately rewarded with his fourth career top-five finish. Additionally, it’s the first time WBR has ever finished in the top-five at Phoenix, according to CBS Sports’ Steven Taranto.
“I felt like myself again. It is amazing what you can do when the car is handling like that,” said Berry. “It was really solid and staying underneath me. I am super proud of these guys.”
Following Sunday’s race, Berry will head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Sunday, March 16 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1) 21st in points, up 11 spots positions on a day where tire compounds and near disaster defined the Wood Brothers Racing competitor.
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