Josh Berry said ahead of Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway that he feels Tony Stewart handled informing Stewart-Haas Racing employees earlier this week that the race team will shut down operations after the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season “as good as he could of” given the circumstances.
“Tony met with us and then the crew chiefs and then obviously the whole company. And honestly given the circumstance, I think he handled it as good as he could of,” Berry said, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “We’re gonna race hard the rest of the season and see what happens.”
SHR announced its closure after 15 years, a tenure which included two Cup Series championship wins (Stewart in 2009 and Kevin Harvick in 2014). With that announcement, Berry, along with Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece, will be looking for new rides for the 2025 campaign.
As for how it impacts his team in finishing out this current season, Berry described the feeling as “relieved” to know what is happening rather than guessing. The goal of running well week in and week out remains the same.
“Not really anything different than what it’s been the last couple weeks,” Berry said. “We all knew something was happening, we just didn’t know exactly what. So, I don’t think the mood really changed. If anything, maybe people are kind of relieved to finally know instead of just guessing.”
Fortunately for Berry, another opportunity in the Cup Series should materialize based on the results of his first 14 races with SHR. Dating back to Talladega Superspeedway last month, Berry has finished P16 or better in five consecutive races. That includes a season-best P3 result at Darlington Raceway and another top-10 finish this past Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600. Berry is up to 19th in the points standings and appears to be hitting his stride at the right time.
Rodney Childers talks Josh Berry, future amid Stewart-Haas shutdown
Crew chief Rodney Childers said Thursday on “DJD Reloaded” that while the best-case scenario is that everybody involved with the No. 4 team finds jobs in the next month or so, the No. 1 priority for the remainder of the season is continuing to run well and raise the stock of Berry.
“My group is really motivated right now from the Josh Berry standpoint,” Childers said. “It was up to us of who was gonna drive the car and putting him in there — I know at the beginning of the year we showed some flashes and then we went through a few weeks of tearing up cars which really wasn’t his fault. And then now, it’s turned the corner to where he has figured out these cars. We’ve figured out what he likes and have started turning the corner. We’ve had really good runs every week. And that’s what we’re excited about right now is to get him in victory lane, to raise his stock, to make sure that he has a ride for next year.
“I said it at the beginning of the year that Josh Berry’s not gonna fail on my watch. And I still mean that. It’s important to me that he races next year and he’s not a one-year wonder. He’s extremely good and he deserves to be in the Cup Series. And that’s our priority the rest of the year.”
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