Josh Berry, driver of the No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Wood Brothers Racing, secured his spot in the All-Star Race earlier this year with his first career victory, taking the checkered flag at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Berry spoke about being part of the main event earlier today at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DOES NORTH WILKESBORO STILL FEEL AS IMPORTANT TODAY AS 2023 AND WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES FOR THE FUTURE WITH THIS TRACK? “Yeah, I think so. It’s been a lot of fun the last couple of years coming back here. They’ve done an amazing job with the facility. It’s probably one of the, if not the nicest short track in this area now, at least that you can take late model cars and race at, so a super good job. It’s been fun. I think all I’m looking for is as the track ages some and hopefully continues to widen out and creates more grooves and just races better.”
YOU HAVE A SPECIAL PAINT SCHEME. DOES THE GOOD RUN LAST NIGHT HELP AS FAR AS MOMENTUM FOR THE REST OF THE WEEKEND? “I don’t think I take a lot of momentum necessarily from last night, but I think we have a lot of momentum from how we’ve been running. Obviously, a couple missed opportunities here or there, but we’ve been really fast and that’s what it takes to win these races. We’ve just got to work on the execution things a little bit better. That starts today and if we can do that, I feel like there’s no reason why we can’t contend for this thing.”
WHAT IMPACT DO YOU THINK THIS TIRE WILL HAVE ON THE RACING, AND HOW SIMILAR DOES THE MARTINSVILLE TIRE FEEL FROM A STANDARD SHORT TRACK TIRE YOU’RE USED TO? “It’s hard to say. I think hopefully the Martinsville tire has more fall off. That’s really what we’re after. It’s gonna be hard to say if that’s the case. We’re racing at night time with cooler track temps and that will help tire wear, but I really don’t know what to expect. I don’t think it really compares much to last night. I mean, racing those cars at a place like this they tend to bring harder tires than what you would run at the average short track, just because of the speed, so it’s not really a direct comparison, but hopefully the Martinsville tire adds a little bit of fall off to it and creates some more strategy.”
DOES THIS TRACK STILL HAVE A LOT OF GRIP OR IS IT STARTING TO AGE A BIT? “It’s still got a lot of grip. I think it came in quicker. You tend to see with repaves with no rubber down they can be really kind of sketchy the first couple of laps until rubber gets put down, but it seemed like that was a little better, so I think it will be pretty normal. I don’t think the surface has changed a whole lot.”
WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES THE COCA-COLA 600 SUCH A COMPETITIVE RACE? “It’s the longest race in our sport and that opens up a lot of opportunities for comers and goers. You obviously have to have a good balance to start the race, but then it cools off and you’ve got to stay up with the track. It’s just a grind. For us, I’m really excited to get there with the speed we’ve had on the intermediates. I finished 10th there last year. Obviously, I would have liked to run the full 600 miles to get the full experience, but I think it’s a fun one. It’s a crown jewel. The prerace is a lot of fun and really special. We’re excited to get there.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE SPORT TO BE AROUND CHARLOTTE? “It’s home for nearly all of us, so to get to race at home and bring your friends and family, there’s always a good crowd. The pits are always packed, so that just makes it a little extra special.”
IT’S BEEN NEARLY A YEAR SINCE SHR ANNOUNCED ITS PLANS TO GO AWAY. WHAT GOES THROUGH OUR MIND AS YOU REFLECT ON YOUR JOURNEY THIS PAST YEAR SINCE THAT ANNOUNCEMENT? “It’s been a lot. A lot happened in 12 months from that point. The biggest thing is I’m just really thankful for this opportunity that I’ve been in with the 21 team. It’s been such a great fit for all of us and whenever you go through that transition you wonder how it’s gonna work and how it’s gonna be. Last year was hard. We went through this stretch through the summer and had some good runs, showed some potential. There were races we were in contention and then towards the end it got super hard just to be competitive and then you leave your season wondering how good you are at this stuff. To come into the 21 team and put in the work we did in the offseason just getting to know each other and to come out with the speed like we’ve had, it’s been a big deal. I’m just super proud of that and thankful for the opportunity to go drive for them. It’s been a lot of fun this season. It’s just crazy how quickly things can change, I guess.”
THREE OF THE FOUR OF YOU GUYS ARE IN A PLAYOFF SPOT RIGHT NOW. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN WITH THE JOURNEY ALL OF YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH? “It’s hard to say. Obviously, we’re faster and I don’t know why. There was tons of amazing people there. I don’t really know why it’s been so different, but we’re just more competitive. I think last year a lot of people looked at us as underperforming and now we’re overperforming. It changes just like that. The perception has changed completely. Like I said, I think we’ve all fallen into really good positions with great teams and I’m thankful for that. Thankfully, we all did enough last year to find those opportunities and come out on the other side of it.”
HOW MUCH PRIDE TO YOU TAKE IN CONTRIBUTING TO THE LATE MODEL STOCK CAR SERIES AS THE ALL-TIME WINNER, AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO CUP SERIES FANS AS TO WHY THEY SHOULD WATCH TONIGHT ON FS1? “It’s obviously really cool to get them on FS1. The biggest thing, to me, is just the racing is good. Hopefully, tonight puts on a good show, but they go to tons of different tracks around here that put on really good racing, so the biggest thing is I just hope it draws a good audience and gets people excited about it to where they can do it more often. I’ll be honest. I watch ARCA races and they’re horrible. CARS Tour puts a way better product on to be on TV and they deserve a spot like that. I think hopefully tonight they do that. Hopefully, they don’t get too crazy – everybody getting wild on television. Hopefully, we can get the races started and stay on time, but I’m excited to see how it does. I think it’s a great product. The series is obviously really competitive. It’s more competitive then ever and way more competitive than even when I was a part of it, so it’s a lot of positives for that deal. Hopefully, they knock it out of the ball park.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE IDENTITY FOR THIS ALL-STAR RACE SHOULD BE MOVING FORWARD? “I think most of us would have liked to have seen something to change it up a little bit. I think the run what you brung deal was way far out of expectation. I think it was too far out, but I’m sure teams would have been interested in doing some sort of change to just see what happens. I feel like they’ve done that in year’s past to get a data point for how to improve the racing, so I don’t know. Obviously, it was on their radar if they were considering to do that kind of race. It was on their radar to do something different, but maybe the timetable just didn’t work out to get it all figured out. I think this race should be an opportunity for us to maybe try things under a race setting, whatever that is – whether it’s tires or aero or horsepower or anything along those lines, just to see if we can help the product. We’re all still gonna be just as competitive and race just as hard and all the teams are gonna work just as hard. There’s a million dollars on the line. It’s not like it’s gonna change anything. We’ll just see if something sticks, I guess.”
WHAT’S THE FRUSTRATION LEVEL NOW AND HOW DIFFERENT IS IT HAVING TOUGH FINISHES WHEN YOU’RE RUNNING WELL? “The frustration is considerably less compared to last year. Being competitive is the biggest thing. That’s the hardest thing to figure out is how to be fast and lead these races and get yourself in contention, and we’ve done that a lot. It’s frustrating to make mistakes and those mistakes fall on me, but all we can do is just continue to put me in that position and keep working on those things and getting better and the finishes will come. We’re fortunate to have that win in the bank and, like I said, I’m not very frustrating with how it’s been going. To be leading the race at Texas. We see when you hit that bump I wrecked, but it was a learning thing to learn what we need to do better the next time. Last week stings more because I think we had a chance at that one if I didn’t speed on pit road, so that one stung a little bit more, but, all in all, our whole team is doing a great job. Our cars are fast and we’ve just got to do the little things a little bit better and we’ll be up there.”
IS IT IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO BE IN THE TOP 16 IN POINTS WHEN THE PLAYOFFS START EVEN THOUGH YOU ALREADY HAVE A SPOT CLINCHED? “Yeah. It’s a different point system from what we’ve had in year’s past, but it’s still a way to rank your season. We want to be up there as high as we can and be more consistent being there. That’s the way you take the next step into being a championship contender or championship favorite. It’s the speed and the consistency, so if we’re able to keep clawing up the standings, I think that’s another sign that we’re continuing to progress and we’re gonna try to do the best that we can each and every week and score as many points as we can.”
