AVONDALE, Ariz. — Josh Berry’s fourth place finish at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday (March 9) was, remarkably, the first ever top five at the track for the venerable Wood Brothers Racing.
Not to mention it was the team’s best finish since Harrison Burton notched its historic 100th win at Daytona International Speedway in August 2024. All told, it was the fabled organization’s 355th top-five effort in 1,753 races and 72 years of operation in the NASCAR Cup Series.
But through all of those races and good results among all of the team’s legendary drivers, none had posted a top five at Phoenix until Berry.
“Miles [Stanley, crew chief] and everybody in the [No.] 21 team made some good adjustments, made the car better,” Berry told Frontstretch. “We need to be a little better on the longer run early in the race, but he made good adjustments, and I got more competitive and we kept battling back.
“We had issues on pit road with the left rear. Unfortunately, we had to back up and tighten the tire. But we had a few good restarts and was able to get back up there and get a solid finish. So I’m really proud of everybody in this team.”
For Berry, in his first season with the Wood Brothers, it was a really positive result after a tough start to the season. Berry finished 37th at Daytona International Speedway, 25th at Atlanta Motor Speedway and 26th at Circuit of the Americas. He sat 33rd in points after those results, behind Jimmie Johnson, who has only competed in one race this season.
P4. Not bad for the ‘lol they’re behind the guy that ran 1 race in points’ team.
— Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) March 9, 2025
-signed,
Definitely not admin
The fourth at Phoenix bumped Berry all the way up to 21st in points. Phoenix was also the site of Berry’s first career Cup top 10, while he was subbing for Chase Elliott in 2023.
“I just felt like myself again out there honestly,” Berry said. “We’ve been grinding the last year or so, and this group’s been great for me. I really enjoyed getting to work with these guys and having some great teammates out there like Joey [Logano] and Ryan [Blaney] to lean off of and learn from. I feel like this is just the first of many, really.”
Berry was also a fan of the option tire available for Cup teams Sunday at Phoenix. Each team had two sets for the race (along with one for practice), and the question of when to bolt them on was answered in disparate ways up and down pit road.
“It just opens up the strategy a lot.” Berry said. “Everybody’s been so hard on this track, but we saw three amazing finishes this weekend. I think it just goes to show you that it’s not always the track and sometimes you just gotta work and figure out the combination of what’s what to put on a good show.
“From the driver’s seat, I felt like that it was a really good race. I hope the fans felt the same, and it’s definitely interesting, a lot of strategy involved in that. It reminds me of short track racing.”
After opening the year with two superspeedways, a road course and a short course, the Cup Series now moves on to back-to-back high-banked, fast one-and-a-half milers, with Berry expressing guarded optimism as to his prospects.
“This is the standard for this [No.] 21 team,” Berry said. “We feel like we can run up here, and we’ve got some things to iron out, but all in all, it was a really solid day.”
Danny starts his 12th year with Frontstretch in 2018, writing the Tuesday signature column 5 Points To Ponder. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.