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June 17, 2024

Josh Berry dazzles in bittersweet Iowa effort: ‘We’re all auditioning for our jobs’


NEWTON, Iowa — Josh Berry tried his damndest not to let his mind wonder about what could happen Sunday night at Iowa Speedway. But the more he led, the less he could help himself.

The Stewart-Haas Racing rookie led 32 laps in the No. 4 Ford and started to think about how sweet a win in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa would be … and with plenty of undertones for his future. He left instead with a seventh-place finish, an impressive day for the first-year full-timer but just enough to leave him disappointed.

MORE: Race results | At-track photos

“I hate we missed out on an opportunity there maybe to win,” Berry told NASCAR.com. “I try not to let myself think about that, being a rookie and everything, adapting to this new car. But that was real. And that says a lot in itself, right?”

It sure does.

Berry and the rest of this SHR cohort were informed on May 28 that the organization will be shuttering its operations upon the conclusion of the season. That leaves all four of its drivers and a significant number of employees searching for opportunities for 2025 and beyond. A run like Berry’s on Sunday night is the kind that could keep the driver’s phone ringing for future Cup opportunities.

“We’re all auditioning for our jobs and working our guts out trying to stay racing at this level,” Berry said. “My team’s pedigree speaks for itself, but for me as a driver, I really don’t know what else I can do to prove that I deserve to be in the Cup Series in a competitive race car other than just win a race, and that was looking like it might be possible (Sunday night). So we’re gonna keep digging. I feel like we have a lot of good tracks coming up, and I think that we can do good things.”

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His No. 4 team is led by crew chief Rodney Childers, who guided Berry’s predecessor, Kevin Harvick, to the 2014 Cup Series championship, in addition to 37 of Harvick’s 60 career Cup wins. The gravity of their current situation is not lost on Childers, who was pleased with the program’s performance all weekend after a third-place qualifying effort to couple with their top-10 finish — a stark contrast after consecutive DNFs at World Wide Technology Raceway and Sonoma Raceway.

“It’s interesting looking for a job all week and still coming and running like this,” Childers said. “That’s just icing on the cake, honestly. Everybody has stayed focused and keeps racing their hearts out, and everybody that we race against knows what the 4 car is capable of and the people that I have. Josh is just driving his butt off, and if he didn’t show that he doesn’t deserve (to be) in this series tonight, then something’s wrong.”

Josh Berry races at Iowa.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media

Berry’s Tennesseean shine in Iowa wasn’t just a flash in the pan, either. The 33-year-old has led laps in six races this year and now has three top 10s in his last five races. At the 0.875-mile Iowa track, Berry posted the fourth-best average running position (5.75) behind only top-three finishers Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Chase Elliott.

“This car fits me well on the short tracks especially,” said Berry, who won the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship in 2020 and has a storied career racing late model stocks. “It kind of reminds me of a late model or something, how it drives. And really, from the first time I took it to one of these places, it really started to click for me. So I think that we’re doing a lot of good things, right, and we just gotta keep plugging away at it.

“The reality of our situation is it’s only gonna get harder and harder the farther we get into the season. But we’re gonna keep trying to hold everything together the best we can, and runs like tonight make that a lot easier.”

Berry, of course, isn’t the only member of his No. 4 team looking for work. Childers’ most recent departure from a team came between the 2013 and ’14 seasons, leaving Michael Waltrip Racing on his own volition to join Harvick, which proved to be an incredibly fruitful decision. This job hunt is less uncertain and not of his choice, but the need to focus on the on-track portion of his current day job has remained unfazed.

“I think what makes it easier is just the group that we have,” Childers said. “Man, it just runs like a factory. It runs like a clock. Nobody misses a beat. You’re not worried about what if somebody’s getting their job done or not. My engineers are doing a great job. Cheddar (Smith, car chief) and all the road guys haven’t missed a beat. Honestly, it’s been pretty easy. You know, the racing part of it hasn’t changed. Everybody has the same mindset. We’ve been really open and honest. We have lots of meetings and talk about lots of different things, and we’re just gonna continue to race our guts out and show that we can do this.”

In the meantime, performances such as the one this group put together Sunday at Iowa will continue to serve as both resume builders and confidence boosters.

“Days like today make it realize for everybody that it’s possible that we can win a race,” Berry said. “And being a rookie in this series, I mean, that’s pretty special.”

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