When it was announced that Kevin Harvick was retiring from cup series racing, he left some difficult shoes to fill. Still, Stewart-Haas Racing made the right decision in hiring Josh Berry to move #4WARD. Unfortunately, Stewart-Haas is leaving NASCAR at the end of the 2024 season. This leaves their current employees looking for work next season. Talk about a tough situation being made even tougher for Josh Berry.
Josh Berry went from being the heir to Kevin Harvick’s ride to looking for a ride all in less than a season’s time. He knew he was stepping into a tough situation. The #4 car went winless in Harvick’s last season. Stewart-Haas as a whole seemed to struggle a lot since one of their strongest seasons in 2020. Long time sponsors left when Harvick retired. Still, I doubt that Berry planned to be auditioning for a ride for 2025.
Thankfully, Berry seems to have taken the surprising change in stride. The rookie cup series driver has a lot going for him. First of all, Berry has a crew chief that believes in his abilities. Childers would like to continue being Berry’s crew chief next season, regardless of where he ends up. That’s a huge bonus to a team that hires him. Childers is one of the top crew chiefs. He won a lot of races with Kevin Harvick as his driver. In his first season as Harvick’s crew chief, they won the championship. Childers has already proven he can take a top tier driver and make them a dominant force in the cup series.
Iowa Corn 350
Josh Berry and the #4 team have had some good runs this season. Also, they’ve had their share of difficult days. They’ve had good days turned bad, and vice versa. After the inaugural cup race at Iowa Speedway, it seems they finally had a day where it all came together.
First, they qualified in the 3rd position. Second, they ran up front, scored a lot of stage points, and contended all day. Third, they led later in the race and if not for Ricky Stenhouse spinning his tires on that final restart in front of them, they may have gotten a win. Finally, the only driver to score more points in Iowa than Berry was race winner Ryan Blaney.
As previously stated, Iowa is not the team’s first good race. They finished third at Darlington, and followed that up with a 10th place finish in the Coca-Cola 600. The team has a total of 7 top 15 finishes in 17 races. While the team has struggled on road courses and not run as well on intermediate tracks, they seem to be doing rather well at the shorter tracks. They currently sit 21st in the standings, trailing 16th place by 100 points.
Berry Belongs in the Cup Series
Josh Berry is currently leading the Rookie of the Year standings in the Cup series. Right now, that race looks like it will come down to Berry and Hocevar. Berry is leading with 314 points to Hocevar’s 302. Furthermore, Berry is scoring a ton of stage points compared to the other rookies. So far, Berry has scored 36 stage points. Hocevar is the only other rookie to score stage points (having scored 3 stage points).
Finally, if there is a rookie that is going to make the playoffs in 2024, it’s Josh Berry. It looks like it is going to take a win, but that is exactly what Berry, Childers, and the entire #4 team are after. We have seen what he can do in top tier equipment, when he was a substitute driver for Hendrick in 2023, covering for both Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman. We are just starting to see what he can do when the pressure is on.
This is why I believe that Josh Berry not only belongs in the Cup series, but he belongs with a top tier team. Yes, there are more consistent drivers this season, but this series stopped being about consistency long ago. It is about performance under pressure (and “parity” I guess). If Berry continues to perform this way in these most trying of circumstances, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him (along with crew chief Rodney Childers) with a top team in 2025. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
