Josh Berry closed his second full-time Cup season on solid footing, finishing 16th in the standings with his first Cup career win at Las Vegas, three top-five finishes, and eight top-10s. The result came after years of hard work and long nights spent chasing a dream through the CARS Late Model and Super Late Model ranks. But even with that history of endurance, Berry says there is one day that still makes him shudder, the afternoon he thought he might not make it to the checkered flag.
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In a recent Jeff Gluck’s 12 Questions interview, Berry revealed when he felt most miserable behind the wheel. “Texas, 2021. It was a doubleheader with Trucks and Xfinity,” he admitted, recounting the day his body nearly gave out.
The June 2021 race at Texas Motor Speedway baked in brutal heat, and Berry’s Truck had no cool-shirt system. With only a fan circulating oven-hot air inside the cab, the temperature soared well north of comfortable. By the end, he was drenched, dizzy, and convinced he was about to collapse. However, he had no other option but to race in both series.
“I didn’t have an Xfinity ride lined up yet for 2022, so I ran the Rackley W.A.R. truck to take that opportunity. It was like 105 degrees that day; it was brutal. But I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity because I didn’t really have anything lined up, and that could be an opportunity for me if JR Motorsports (his team at the time) didn’t work out,” he said.
Berry pushed through the discomfort, knowing the stakes were too high to sit one out. The truck had only minimal ventilation, and the heat inside grew unbearable. “I remember getting out afterward, going to the bathroom in one of the porta-johns, and I thought I was going down after that. It was so hot,” the Wood Brothers Racing driver continued.
Despite his physical state, Berry gutted out a P10 finish, landing inside the top 10 for Stage 1 and climbing to P6 in Stage 2 before the final flag. With no time to recover, he then climbed straight into the Xfinity car for another run under the Texas sun.
Starting from 28th on the grid, Berry muscled his way forward, reaching eighth by Stage 2 before fading slightly to P19 at the end. And that race paid off for him in the best way possible. Berry was part-time in the Xfinity Series that year, driving for JR Motorsports and Jordan Anderson Racing.
After running three more races following the Texas race, he was offered a full-time Xfinity ride with the JRM team in 2022 and finished 4th in the Championship.
Four years later, with a Cup victory to his name and a steady climb in the standings, that miserable day in Texas probably is one of the many proofs of the lengths he was willing to go for a shot at the big leagues.
