- Josh Berry was named to replace retiring Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas Racing beginning in 2024.
- Berry was discovered by Dale Earnhardt Jr. on iRacing more than a decade ago.
- Earnhardt tested him and then hired him to drive his Late Model.
Josh Berry didn’t buy the right to be Kevin Harvick’s successor at Stewart-Haas Racing. He earned it.
“I’m not interested in some kid’s father coming in and buying their way into a (NASCAR) Cup Series ride. I have zero interest in that,” team co-owner Tony Stewart says. “We want guys that earn their way, that work hard, that understand the values that it takes to be a top tier driver. Not one that just got his high school diploma and now all of a sudden he’s a Cup driver.
“Josh has put in the time, the effort, and every time he’s gotten an opportunity, he’s made the most of it. That’s the traits that championship drivers are built off of; not the easy ticket to get there.”
Berry was discovered by Dale Earnhardt Jr. on iRacing more than a decade ago. Earnhardt tested him and then hired him to drive his Late Model. A Hendersonville, Tennessee, native, Berry moved to North Carolina and lived with Earnhardt’s mother while he drove Late Models for Earnhardt. In 2014, Berry began driving a limited number of NASCAR Xfinity Series races for JR Motorsports. However, it wasn’t until 2021 that the Mooresville, North Carolina-based team made him a full-time Xfinity Series driver.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Earnhardt said about Berry’s Cup opportunity. “He’s definitely good enough and talented enough for an opportunity like this. I couldn’t imagine a better pairing than him with (crew chief) Rodney (Childers).”
In gaining the SHR ride, Berry has bucked what many consider the status quo in auto racing. He has never bought a ride and he’ll be 33 years old when he becomes a full-time NASCAR Cup driver for the first time. It’s an age that many believe is too old to start a Cup career, but Stewart and Kevin Harvick disagree.
“You don’t have to teach him about life,” Harvick says. “There’s a maturity factor that goes with life. I think he’s lived through some of the most important parts and … all the things that it takes in order to figure out that it’s not easy and you have to work hard. You have to have your ducks in a row and be able to have that circle of life well put together around you in order to be successful.
“I think a lot of this success in this division depends on what’s happening outside of the race car. There are a lot of things outside the car that he demonstrates well when it comes to life in general.”
Childers, a former Late Model driver, has watched Berry ever since he started racing Late Models at Hickory, North Carolina. When Childers was told he got to pick Harvick’s successor, there was no doubt in the veteran crew chief’s mind who he wanted in the No. 4 Ford in 2024.
“It was kind of a life moment for me, because if it wasn’t somebody like Josh that I truly believed in, I wouldn’t have kept doing it (being a crew chief),” Childers said. “I would have just walked away and did some kind of management role or whatever and spend more time with my wife and kids on the weekends.”
Stewart cites one key quality that Berry possesses that makes him a perfect fit at SHR – he’s a racer.
“Stewart-Haas Racing is not about guys that just come in, spend their time during the day and when the clock gets to the point where it’s time to leave, they all just bail out of there,” Stewart says. “We’ve got people there that care about race cars. That’s all they think about is racing. That’s what this guy (Berry) has done for years. He lives, eats, breathes racing, and that’s all he wants to do aside from his family, so that’s what we want. That’s the DNA we want. That’s what our culture at SHR is built around, a bunch of people that just want to go win races and contend for championships.”
Stewart said no sponsors have been signed for the No. 4 car for 2024, but they were in discussions with various companies.
