NEWTON, Iowa — Josh Berry’s third season in the NASCAR Cup Series hit rock bottom when he learned he’d not return to Wood Brothers Racing in 2027.
But Berry and NASCAR’s most famous team didn’t give up on this season and they’ve reaped the awards during the last two events.
A week off followed, Berry’s seventh-place run in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 21 Ford backed that up with a fourth-place effort Sunday at Iowa Speedway.
The result marked Berry’s first top-five finish of the season and the seventh of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
Berry started the 350-lap race from 13th on the 0.875-mile Iowa oval and steadily worked his way forward.
“We had a really solid day,” Berry told reporters after the race. “The car was great.”
Berry said the No. 21 showed plenty of speed during Saturday’s practice session, even though the team wasn’t able to fully capitalize on it in qualifying.
“I feel like everybody on the 21 car did a really good job all weekend,” Berry said. “We just unloaded good and definitely had great long-run pace throughout the race. We just needed it to run long enough to show it, and we were finally able to do that and overcome a lot of things.
“It makes it easy when your cars drive like they did this weekend, and we’ve just got to keep pushing. I think we’ve got a lot of good tracks coming up. I’m excited to get to Richmond next week and keep going after these good finishes.”
Berry said his car was too free early, but came around later in the race.
“Struggled at times with rear grip. I felt like we held on pretty good compared to most, but just had to get the car tightened up, and I think second half of the race we got that,” he explained. “That just allows you to move around and run the different lanes, make passes, set up passes and trust the rear of the car.
“Like I said, we did a great job executing that, and just thank you to Menards and everybody at the Wood Brothers for all they do and everybody at Ford Racing. We’ll go next week and try to do it again.”
