After adjusting to the newness that came with running full-time in the Cup Series, Josh Berry has been slowly becoming his true self in recent weeks. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver has secured four top-10 finishes in the last six races. He now goes to the Nashville Superspeedway, his home track, hoping to make his people proud.
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The upcoming Cup Series race in the Music City will mark the 19th race of the ongoing season. It presents Berry with a golden opportunity to secure a victory and gain entry to the playoffs. Making a case for him is his recent momentum and history at the track. He finished in third place last Sunday at New Hampshire and preceded that with a seventh-place finish in Iowa.
Racing in the Xfinity Series, he has two top-5 finishes at the Nashville Superspeedway over three overall appearances. He brought in a fourth-place finish in 2021 and a fifth-place finish in 2023. With eight races left in the Cup Series regular season, he is ranked 19th on the points table. He led the Rookie of the Year standings, 35 markers ahead of Carson Hocevar.
Berry’s hometown is the nearby Hendersonville, Tennessee. The coming race will mark his Cup Series debut on the 1.33-mile concrete oval. Talking to the press about how special it is, he says, “I am really excited to get there, in general. I remember growing up and watching races there as a kid, and to get to be the driver on track instead of the kid in the stands is a really cool feeling.”
Josh Berry is optimistic about being successful in Nashville this Sunday
Going to the venue, Berry hopes to see some of his friends and family with whom he hasn’t been in touch for a long time. He continued, “I am sure I will see some friends and family that I haven’t seen in a while, which makes it special, too, because they were the ones to support me when I was chasing this dream. So to see them as a Cup Series driver means a lot to me.”
He touched upon his performances on the track and the previous performances of the #4 SHR team with Kevin Harvick behind the wheel to fuel his optimism. “I think for the race, this will be a good opportunity for us to run well. I have had success there before and run well there, and the No. 4 team and Kevin (Harvick) did well there recently so I think we can be competitive,” he concluded.
