For Nascar Driver Josh Berry Earning Harvick’s Seat Was ‘About Preparation Meeting Opportunity’

Josh Berry has done it.

After rising through the ranks to become a blue-collar hero on the track, the Tennessee native will get behind the wheel of one of the most competitive cars in all of NASCAR next season replacing future NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Ford at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Berry was introduced Wednesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the replacement driver for Kevin Harvick who will retire at the end of this year after 23 seasons in NASCAR’s top tier touring Cup series.

“I can’t imagine a better opportunity for me – to get in a car that’s been as successful and iconic as the No. 4,” Berry said. “Kevin is a future NASCAR Hall of Famer, and it’s going to be a challenge trying to come after someone so successful. But I know I’m going to have an amazing group of people around me, led by Rodney Childers, to where we can hit the ground running.”

Harvick will leave the sport with at least 60 wins, 37 of those coming with crew chief Rodney Childers who he was teamed with in 2014, the year Harvick joined Stewart-Hass Racing from Richard Childress Racing.

That first season together is also notable as Harvick and Childers would go on to win five races and the NASCAR Cup series title.

“We’re incredibly proud to have Josh Berry begin the next chapter of his racing career in our No. 4 Ford Mustang,” said Tony Stewart, co-owner of SHR with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas. “Kevin Harvick has obviously set a very high bar, but Josh brings maturity, experience and, above all, a winning record to Stewart-Haas Racing. He is the right driver, at the right time, for the No. 4 team and our organization.”

The 32-year-old started in go-karts and began his racing career competing in Legend Cars in Nashville while attending community college and working as a bank teller. While he won six Legend Car championships as a teenager, he didn’t get noticed until he began racing online. It was during iRacing sessions that Berry grabbed the attention of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt tested Berry in a Late Model which led to Berry joining Earnhardt owned JR Motorsports’ Late Model program in 2010. Berry would not only score wins in that series but the 2014 CARS Late Model Stock Tour championship and the 2020 NASCAR Weekly Series title.

Earnhardt promoted Berry to NASCAR’s Xfinity series for a limited schedule starting in 2014. In his 13^th start, in 2021, Berry won the Xfinity race at Martinsville Speedway. Later that same year he scored his second career win, coming in Las Vegas. Last season Berry scored three wins, made the Xfinity series Playoffs, and finished in the Championship 4.

Berry has made 10 starts in the Cup series, 8 of those this season as a substitute driver at Hendrick Motorsports for injured drivers Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman. He scored his best finish racing Elliott’s car at Richmond in April coming home second.

Starting next season, he won’t be a substitute driver, however. The climb up NASCAR’s ladder will be over, and Josh Berry will be fulltime on NASCAR’s biggest stage.

“I’m really proud of how I’ve gotten to this point and earned this opportunity,” Berry said. “I don’t like to use the word luck. It’s also been about preparation meeting opportunity.

“The Xfinity Series win at Martinsville changed my career and allowed us to point toward a full-time season for 2022 where we competed for the championship.

“It’s also been very meaningful to get some opportunities in the Cup Series this year. I’m proud of how they went, but I cannot wait to drive a Cup car that’s got my name on it.”

Harvick’s replacement comes from the world of late model racing, and that’s just fine with the future NASCAR Hall of Famer.

“Late Model racing is where I came from, and I think it’s the best place to learn and prepare to eventually race in the NASCAR Cup Series,” said Harvick, who is an ardent supporter of Late Model racing and its presence as a feeder system to NASCAR’s Truck, Xfinity and Cup Series. “Josh is a really good example, and probably the best and most recent example, of applying all that he’s learned in Late Models to what he’s doing in the Xfinity Series.

“Winning the CARS Late Model Stock Tour championship and the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series championship requires a lot of skill and an equal amount of determination. Josh did both and won a lot of races along the way. That experience allowed him to be fast and successful right off the bat when he got to the Xfinity Series, and when he had his opportunities to race in the Cup Series earlier this year, he again showed speed and an ability to race at the front.

“I’m very happy for Josh and proud to see him get this opportunity. He’s going to be a really good fit with Rodney and the No. 4 team.”

In May, Harvick partnered with Earnhardt, Jeff Burton and Justin Marks to purchase the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, the same series Berry ran from 2015 through 2022, winning 22 races and the 2017 title.

“When I was racing the Late Model car, I just wanted to be the most bad-ass short-track racer that you could be, and that’s how we progressed,” Berry said. “We won a ton of races, a national championship and a CARS Tour championship. We had a list of things that we wanted to accomplish and big races we wanted to win, and we’d go out there every time with the intent of checking things off that list.”

From racing go-karts in Tennessee, to racing online to a job at JR Motorsports as a parts washer, to Late Models and to NASCAR’s Xfinity series, Josh Berry has been rewarded by one of the most successful seats in NASCAR history and starting next season he will start his own chapter in the book that was started by Kevin Harvick.

“I wouldn’t change anything about how I got here. It made me who I am,” Berry said. “Throughout my teenage years, it was a fight just to keep racing, to get to the next race.”

“The timing of Dale and I getting together, that was crucial. If that doesn’t happen, I don’t know that I would’ve ever raced a stock car, or how much more I would’ve raced at all, just because racing overextended us financially. And when you race that way, it’s hard to set any kind of a long-term goal. But your goals just change as you grow.

“Those years of racing and winning, and the people I was around and worked with, prepared me for the opportunities that I’ve gotten, and they’ve prepared me to capitalize on this opportunity with Stewart-Haas Racing. Even without knowing where it would ultimately take me, I’d do it all over again.”