The 33-year-old native of Hendersonville, Tenn., stepped in Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 4 Ford this yr following the retirement of star Kevin Harvick and his subsequent transfer to the Fox Sports activities NASCAR TV sales space.
It’s been a tough trip by way of the 2024 season’s first 4 races for Berry, with no begin higher than 14th (Atlanta) and no end higher than twentieth (Las Vegas). The Las Vegas can be the one one to this point Berry has been in a position to end on the lead lap.
Saturday at Bristol, nevertheless, Berry was in a position to showcase his expertise on the sequence’ first go to to trace shorter than mile in size.
“It’s been slightly bit disappointing,” Berry mentioned of his 2024 season. “Even after I began this going again to final summer time folks requested me on a regular basis what my expectations have been, and I all the time mentioned that I anticipated it to be onerous and it’s onerous. Cup racing is difficult.
“So, with that facet of it, I feel every race we’ve had little-ish various things occur that perhaps harm our end or not, however I really feel like once we get every little thing put collectively and the automotive is dealing with like I would like and we execute, we have now pace, we make progress, we’re quicker.
“For me, I made a few errors over the previous couple of weeks. Spinning out in qualifying at Phoenix put us actually far behind all these guys. Having a mistake like that places you actually far behind and makes your day look worse than it truly is.”
Berry was solely twenty sixth quickest in Saturday’s observe however his No. 4 Ford had a number of pace when it got here to qualifying.
He ended up fifth fast in Group B within the first spherical and fell in second behind pole-winner Ryan Blaney within the last spherical to safe his finest begin of the yr.
Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing, HighPoint.com Ford Mustang, Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing, Moose Fraternity Chevrolet Camaro1 and Josh Berry, Stewart-Haas Racing, Harrison’s Ford Mustang wreck
Picture by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Photos
As a rookie, Berry mentioned considered one of his most vital jobs is growing a robust relationship together with his staff. As that progresses, he’s assured the efficiency will enhance.
“That’s the place I really feel like I must develop slightly bit. Final yr (working a partial schedule), you’re on borrowed time every race,” he mentioned. “We didn’t know which race they have been coming again or not and we form of simply raced.
“We didn’t actually take into consideration any of that stuff and now everytime you’re making an attempt to construct, you construct piece by piece into one thing greater.
“This is a vital time for all of us proper now to be taught one another and simply perform a little higher job of that, and I feel it’ll include time.”
Saturday was a robust begin in the correct path.
