When Josh Berry endured an extended slump during the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, his mind kept coming back to one thing: his reputation. However his tenure at Wood Brothers Racing ended, he was determined to leave the organization knowing he had emptied the tank and gone out swinging.
From the outside looking in, he thought the perception around him had changed. His journeyman-like career, winning races at local short tracks in bunches around the Southeast, led him to the national stage. But he was worried that perception was hindered by the No. 21 team’s performance this season.
“It’s amazing how quickly public opinion can change,” Berry said over the weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway before running in contention for much of Sunday’s race but ultimately finishing 28th. “There, for a while, it was bad. It’s results-based, and you can’t really see how the races play out. The things you fight because it’s hard to cover every car throughout the whole race.
“I just felt like myself. I still felt fine, but reading all the stuff, you are like, ‘How did it go this bad this quick?’ “
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Berry learned in early June that Wood Brothers Racing would go in a different direction with the No. 21 team beginning in 2027, with the organization later announcing young prospect — and 2025 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion — Jesse Love as his replacement. As Berry searched for his next opportunity, results remained elusive, with 17 of the first 21 races this season ending in finishes of 25th or worse. Following a 36th-place finish at North Wilkesboro Speedway, he fell to 33rd in the championship standings.
But then, a proverbial switch flipped at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Berry finished seventh for his first top 10 in nearly four months, dating back to Martinsville Speedway. That sparked a run of three consecutive races at shorter tracks — Berry’s bread and butter — in which he finished eighth or better, highlighted by a season-best third at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Tennessean added additional top-10 finishes at Daytona International Speedway and Darlington Raceway, extending his streak to six consecutive races, the longest such run by a Wood Brothers driver since David Pearson in 1976.
“And now it went completely the other way, ‘Oh yeah, this guy can drive,’ ” Berry continued about his perception after six straight top 10s. “It’s almost a joke in a way with how things get perceived. It goes to show you how competitive this is, how hard this is and how important it is to have everything going in the right direction.”
Berry began surveying the landscape of potential opportunities. With little movement in Cup, his primary focus was competing with a competitive team in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, though finishing a deal was an uphill battle.
Jimmie Johnson, seven-time Cup Series champion and majority owner of Legacy Motor Club, came calling. Legacy informed John Hunter Nemechek on August 31 that it was moving in a different direction, inserting Berry into the No. 42 Toyota. The deal rapidly came together.
“Very, very strong reaction. The way we operate and with how close we all are as a team, you know, not an easy decision with John Hunter,” Johnson said on “The Dale Jr. Download” last week. “But we are where we are now, and where Josh can bring in a lot of experience in building maturity, know-how, these things that a 35-year-old can bring. It’s just different.”
Digging into the analytics, Berry’s in-race performance stood out. It dates back further than the recent string of solid finishes — Berry proved he could win at the Cup level, scoring his first victory in March 2025 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I know that people think maybe Legacy chose to move in a direction with Josh because of what’s happened here the last five or six weeks,” Johnson said. “It’s really the data and the body of work over the last three years as we dive in and really look at that, figure out how it fits into our program.”
Ultimately, Berry will be the new pilot of the No. 42 Toyota and intends to join the organization in full soon after the checkered flag drops at the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.
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Over the next eight races, however, Berry hopes to deliver Wood Brothers Racing its 102nd Cup Series victory. And with the recent upward trajectory, he’s once again finding confidence and comfort behind the wheel.
“It’s been a hell of a lot more fun — I know that,” Berry said of his recent performance. “It’s been a lot more fun. Just crazy how the perception of me and our race team has changed. I just felt like this is what was possible for us the whole time; it was our expectation with what I could do behind the wheel. Just try to keep it up, finish strong, score as many points as we can and move up through the standings, hand this thing off and go to my new opportunity.”