For the second straight season, the Wood Brothers 21 car went to victory lane with a first time winner. On Sunday, Josh Berry pulled the upset in the Pennzoil 400 to pragmatically lock himself (and the team) into the playoffs. Although the win is an upset, it cannot be considered shocking or undeserved. Berry qualified 7th and ran inside the Top-10 most of the race. Through the first 5 races of the 2025 season, Berry has seemingly breathed life back into the Wood Brothers. After 3 years of struggles with Harrison Burton, the former NASCAR Weekly Champion has returned the 21 to legitimacy. Not only with the win at Las Vegas, but the consistent competitive speed shown every week on the ovals. The move to put Josh Berry in this ride has clearly been an early success, but not only for the Wood Brothers.

Although it seemed to be a foregone conclusion heading into the 2024 season, Harrison Burton lost his Cup Series ride after 3 disappointing seasons. Yes, the choice to put Burton into the 21 was a project. However, little progression occurred during his time with the Wood Brothers. Burton’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 win last year got the Wood Brothers to their 100th win, but there was little that could be done to save his ride. A demotion back to the Xfinity Series is where Burton ended up for this year. Not with a top team though. Instead, he went to a team who also needed to rebound after a poor 2024. AM Racing brought Burton in to hopefully steady their Xfinity program after Hailie Deegan’s tenure went awry. Much like Josh Berry for the Wood Brothers, Harrison Burton has exceeded expectations in his new ride as well.

Talent Shining Through

Josh Berry’s rise to a Cup Series winner follows an old fashioned pathway. From quitting his job as a bank teller for grassroots racing to the national stage, Berry methodically worked his way to this point. Honestly, it is a pathway that many regional drivers attempt to follow but usually fall short of NASCAR’s top series. Through capitalizing on every opportunity given, Berry became a coveted name during silly season in 2023. When Kevin Harvick announced his retirement, Berry soon became top of list to replace him.

What could have been a dream opportunity soured though as Stewart-Haas Racing crumbled around Berry and the 4 team. While there were moments of excellence, 2024 is largely viewed as a disappointment. Only 2 Top-5s and 4 Top-10s when paired with Rodney Childers, plus finishing last in points among the SHR drivers seemed unlikely at the start. However, those were the results that Berry produced. Although many chalked it up to the organization rather than the driver, the doubts lingered as Berry headed to another struggling team.

However, those doubts have been put on ice for now. Sure, seeing the 21 run well at Daytona and Talladega seemed to be a given. But Berry now has put together 2 great runs at “traditional” tracks. What many expected Berry to do in the 4 car last year is being realized now.

Burton Rediscovering His

What has been said about Berry’s early season success can be mirrored to Harrison Burton. It is was easy to be down on Burton as a driving prospect. His best NASCAR season came during the COVID year and he had done little replicate that success. Prior to running Cup fulltime, Burton had a middling 2021 in the Xfinity Series. Fast forward to the end of 2024, Burton’s time in the 21 saw a playoff caliber organization run bottom 3 in Cup. Was it a case of Burton not being Cup ready or exposing the ceiling for a young driver?

One thing to consider about Harrison Burton is his lack of experience in lesser equipment prior to 2022. Since running in the Truck Series, Burton ran for the top Toyota team. Although the Wood Brothers is considered a fourth Team Penske entry, the 21 is still a far cry away from being top equipment. Over the past 3 seasons, Burton struggled to learn to adapt to equipment that was not top of the series. Based on what is being seen this year, maybe Burton finally has learned.

AM Racing definitely falls into the second tier of the Xfinity Series. Outside the superspeedways, they likely will not compete for many wins but manage to run in the teens on their best day. So far with Harrison Burton, it has mostly been “best days”. Through 5 races, Burton has already eclipsed their Top-10 number from last year.

Factors in Team Improvement

When considering the early improvements seen for both the Wood Brothers and AM Racing, a bulk of the credit will rightfully go to the drivers. Josh Berry and Harrison Burton each are responsible for maximizing each race for their team. So far, each driver has been able to accomplish that well. However, the question of how much the driver factors into the year-over-year improvement is pondered. Obviously, Berry looks to be a sizeable upgrade from Burton. However, Burton is proving to be more than what his Cup career has shown. Certainly blame goes toward Burton for the Wood Brothers struggles from 2022-2024. But was it all his fault?

When we suck it’s our fault. Junk. When we run good it’s because of every reason except being a good team. Heads we don’t win, tails we lose

— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) March 15, 2025

Focusing on the Wood Brothers, Josh Berry did figure to bring some improvement to the team. However, this early success is a bit more than a simple driver swap could do. Sure, Berry is an upgrade over Burton, but to this extent? Other factors have to be considered as well for how well the 21 team is doing. It is more than simply pointing to Team Penske and chalking it up to that too. Over the past 3 seasons, Wood Brothers was still considered Team Penske lite. Did Penske decide to back off during the Burton years to reengage with Berry?

Personnel & Winning

While that could be true, that is a massive discredit to the Wood Brothers. Their successes (and failures) cannot be boiled down to their technical partner. After the past 3 years, the Wood Brothers have gone to great lengths to attempt to fix their issues. What definitely helped that process was the end of season payout they received for a playoff points finish. With Burton’s Daytona win and playoff spot, the earnings jumped significantly for the organization. That increase in payout got dumped back into the team, which could help explain the early season improvements.

Plus, the 21 team also added a rookie crew chief to their team. Taking the race engineer from Ryan Blaney’s team, Miles Stanley so far has demonstrated great leadership and chemistry with Josh Berry. Where that duo’s success can truly be found is the consistency in speeds from qualifying to race trim. Berry has qualified well on every oval thus far, especially Phoenix and Las Vegas. Those good starting spots are not being wasted though, as Berry has maintained track position, minus the pit road miscues. Stanley leads that effort, which has been terrific in the early goings.

What About AM Racing?

Shifting back to AM Racing and the 25 team, the same review can be done there. Once again, Harrison Burton is an improvement from Hailie Deegan and a rotating cast of drivers. That said, there were little expectations that Burton could revive AM Racing this quickly to rack up 3 Top-10s already, with one being on an intermediate.

From the financial view, it is difficult to see a massive difference between the funding for last year versus now. Deegan seemingly brought in enough sponsors to fulfill the ride, at least at the start. Meanwhile, Burton has DEX Imaging as a major backer. Maybe Burton’s sponsors have aided the cause a bit more. From the outside looking in, there is no clear way to know for sure.

Meanwhile, AM Racing also made a crew chief change. Taking the race engineer from Erik Jones’s 43 team, Danny Efland has assumed the duties atop the 25’s pit box. Similar to Stanley, this is Efland’s first fulltime crew chief role after making some appearances in interim duties. The pair of Efland and Burton has been clicking well for AM Racing.

Playoff Josh Berry

Now that the 21 team has their ticket essentially punched for the playoffs, how will this alter their strategy going forward? Barring a string of unique winners, Josh Berry and the 21 team can go all out racking up playoff points. No matter where Berry lands in the standings, he will be one of the 16 fighting for the championship when Southern 500 hits the schedule. Based on the speed they have demonstrated thus far, seeing Berry go for more wins is not out of the question. It might take some strategy calls, but back-to-back weeks have seen Berry restarting with a shot at the win.

The win allows for more aggression with little thought of the risk. This could be reminiscent of how Brad Keselowski ran the remainder of the regular season after his Darlington win. Constantly, the 6 team attempted off-sequence fuel/tire strategies to go for playoff points. With how Stanley strategized thus far, that would not be a far cry from how it could be going forward.

Once in the playoffs, Berry could be a threat to go far. The updated schedule already favored Team Penske, with New Hampshire and WWT Raceway being added along with Talladega in the Round of 8. With Berry’s best races last year featuring on short, flat tracks, this could bode extremely well for him. It might be a stretch to favor him over Ryan Blaney or Joey Logano, but not a crazy one.

No matter how the season unfolds, it can already be considered a success for the Wood Brothers. Josh Berry was the perfect choice for them and that move allowed Harrison Burton to be the seemingly right choice for AM Racing. A beneficial silly season move for all parties involved.