Stewart-Haas Racing may be closing their doors, but Josh Berry and crew chief Rodney Childers want to keep their team together, even if it’s under a different banner in 2025.
Berry was hand-picked by Childers and Kevin Harvick to replace the former NASCAR Cup Series champion in the No. 4 for 2024 and beyond. However, those plans have changed, with the news of SHR leaving the Cup Series.
Regardless, it’s evident Berry and Childers enjoy working together, and they’re hoping to be a package deal for a team next season, wherever that may be within the series.
“Josh Berry, Rodney Childers and the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 team, like everyone else in the building, are now free agents but they really want to stay together, wherever they go next,” Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut reported. “Is that realistic? Who knows. Is it possible? Certainly. Berry inherited much of the same group that dominated the NASCAR Cup Series over the past decade with Kevin Harvick behind the wheel.
“But that isn’t even the operative word either, because Harvick and Childers also hand selected Berry to be the successor of that legacy. And even with the news that Stewart-Haas will shutter at the end of the season, it’s still the goal of the No. 4 team to succeed together now and potentially into the future.”
According to Weaver, Childers has said ‘Josh Berry will not fail on my watch’ over the course the season, so it’s easy to see why one of the best crew chiefs in NASCAR would want to keep his driver and crew the same. Whether that’s possible or not remains to be seen.
“I know he 100 percent believes that and is 100 percent behind me,” said Berry earlier this week regarding Childers, per Weaver. “From a confidence level, I feel the most confident I have ever felt because of comments like that.
“That is a strong statement from someone who has had the success that he’s had … Those are strong words from Rodney and I think they hold weight and I feel the same towards him. No matter how this shakes out, I’m am the world’s biggest advocate for him because he’s the best I have ever worked with and will be the best I will ever work with. He gets all the credit he deserves from over the years.”
Even though Berry and the No. 4 team haven’t exactly been lighting it up week-in and week-out, Ford as a whole was struggling earlier this season, but it seems as if the freshly-minted full-time Cup Series wheelman is starting to figure things out.
“We showed flashes of speed early in the season,” Berry added, per Weaver. “Even during our worst races, we had runs where we learned a lot and got a direction and now we’re starting to build results and consistency. I’m getting more comfortable with the NextGen car. Rodney is more comfortable with me.
“There are some things I was struggling with that Kevin struggled with last year and some things that were just me but Rodney has done a really good job of working through that.”
At the moment, Berry and Childers are working to make the final season for the No. 4 under SHR’s banner a fantastic one, but their eyes also are catching glimpse of the future, as well.
“That’s 100 percent our goal, but it remains to be seen whether or not that is realistic or not,” Berry said, regarding keeping the team together next season, via Weaver. “We all want to continue together. We had a very strong month, month and a half. We’re continuing to grow. We’ve had some really solid runs.
“Rodney’s message has been to be patient and see what happens. But internally, that’s our goal, the best case scenario.”
Alas, time will tell if Josh Berry and Rodney Childers continue on this journey together, but it’s certainly refreshing to see a driver-crew chief relationship like the duo has cultivated in such a short amount of time.
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