Josh Berry on Turning 2026 Around & Lee Pulliam Similarities

On April 11, 2021, at Martinsville Speedway, Josh Berry had a life-changing win in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

In his sixth of what was supposed to only be 12 starts for JR Motorsports, the 2020 NASCAR Local Racing Series Powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts national champion won at The Paperclip, changing the trajectory of his career. He went full time in NOAPS the following two years before moving up to the NASCAR Cup Series, where he now races for Wood Brothers Racing.

Two weeks ago, another Local Racing Series national champion, Lee Pulliam, had a similar opportunity with JRM.

Frontstretch caught up with Berry the morning of the Martinsville Cup race to reflect on Berry’s first NOAPS win and talk Pulliam’s and other grassroots racers’ opportunities since. Berry also discusses turning his 2026 season around after a shaky start and where he stands in coming back with the Wood Brothers next year.

Watch the interview here or above or read it below.

Michael Massie, Frontstretch: So this season started out a little rough, but do you feel like now things are starting to turn around?

Josh Berry: Yeah, a little bit. Obviously, it’s been an up and then down for us the last month or so. Had a pretty solid Clash, had a good Speedweeks. And then, yeah, each race has been a little bit different. There’s been some races where we just weren’t fast enough. There’s been some mistakes, getting caught up in wrecks that weren’t of our doing. So it’s been tough. I think, I think last week [Darlington Raceway] was a was a good, solid race for us. Obviously, a lot of unknowns with the different package and didn’t have a great practice and made good adjustments for the race and executed. Also had a tire test after [Las Vegas Motor Speedway] that I thought went really well for us. I thought we learned a lot and was able to just kind of get back in a good direction going forward for the intermediate tracks and stuff that we had lost with some of the tire changes and everything.

So overall, I feel like the guys are doing a good job. It’s so tough in this sport, man. I mean, if you have a couple bad weeks, you fall down in the points, you have to go out early to qualify, you’re in group one for practice. It’s easy for the things to stack together and get away from you. Really last week, we just needed to have a solid day. Top 15 was kind of what we were thinking we had and ended up 17th. We’ll take that. Gave us a better draw for this week, and we capitalized on that in qualifying. So hopefully, we can turn the corner.

Massie: Are you paying any more attention to the points this year, given the format’s different?

Berry: Yeah, I mean, certainly. Obviously, our goal going into this season was to make The Chase. So obviously, you have to pay attention to the points more so than the previous format. Last year’s format, we could easily win a race here or wherever and fix all those issues. So it’s definitely a lot different. But really, there’s nothing you can do about it other than just go out each and every week and try to do the best you can.

Massie: I want to rewind to five years ago. It was this weekend at Martinsville five years ago. I feel like it was a pretty life-changing weekend for you where you win driving for JR Motorsports. Walk me back through then. Was that a life-changing experience for you?

Berry: Yeah, certainly. That opportunity came about kind of out of nowhere, I guess, for me. I’d been late model racing for so long and never really expected to get back in an Xfinity [O’Reilly] car and kind of moved past that. Obviously, [I] got an amazing opportunity with JR Motorsports to go Xfinity racing for 12 races there.

We had shown speed and done some good things. Hadn’t had the luck and the finishes like we wanted, but obviously came here [to Martinsville]. Getting that win, I think like you said, it certainly was life-changing for me just winning in the Xfinity Series and legitimizing what we were doing.

Really what I’m most proud of even after that is we went to Darlington, I think, and then Dover [Motor Speedway] and finished second in both of those. And then I think fourth at Nashville [Superspeedway] and really kind of started putting it together on the tracks that I wasn’t expected necessarily to run that good at, right? When I came here, I think the expectations were that we would be really competitive, but when you start going to places like that that you’ve never raced at and run good, I think that, yeah, it changed my life and ultimately turned into a full-time opportunity.

Massie: So do you think that like even if you didn’t win, say you finished second that day at Martinsville, that you ran good enough at those other tracks to kind of show that you belong in the series?

Berry: Yeah, I don’t know. I really don’t know the answer to that question, right? I feel like the win did a tremendous amount for me. I don’t know that if I finished second I’m here right now. It’s just hard to say. I mean, we gained so much positive momentum outside of just being able to seal the deal in that race and win. I mean, it does a tremendous amount for your confidence and a tremendous amount for the team. We were able to start finding some partners here and there that wanted to come on board, and it was a big deal.

When I think back on it now, I realize just how special that really was, just because it’s so hard at this level and that’s what I didn’t necessarily completely understand at that point was just how much is outside of your control in this type of racing and how things really have to go right. You have to have the right strategy. You have to have a good day on pit road. You have to do all these things right to give yourself that position. I certainly have learned over the years how hard that really is.

Massie: There were a lot of parallels with Lee Pulliam to your experience. I know he’s a little older than you were then, but just were you paying attention to his race at all? And how well do you know Lee?

Berry: Yeah, for sure. I mean, obviously, I was paying attention to it, and I’ve raced a lot with Lee. I would be lying if I said that Lee and I don’t see eye to eye, probably. We’ve had a lot of battles over the years, but the reality of it is is I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a racecar driver. Obviously, I knew going in yesterday [in the O’Reilly Martinsville race] that he was going to be able to run pretty well. It just comes down to all the things lining up perfectly, like I talked about, to have the opportunity to win.

There for a minute, it looked like they were going to be in position. But all in all, yeah, it’s cool to see those opportunities. There’s been a lot of guys that I feel like have had those opportunities come about over the past couple of years. I still feel like that the success that myself and like Ty Majeski are two that stick out to me, that have kind of brought the short track people back into it. And when you have the success of the [zMAX] CARS Tour and everything that’s going there. Yeah, I feel like it’s not only affording these guys opportunities here or there, but I mean it’s just putting more eyeballs on them and respecting what we did. Overall, that’s good to see.

Massie: I feel like almost you were the kind of the trailblazer, where after you a lot more of these late model stock guys are getting opportunities. Do you think that’s the case compared to how it was like five, 10 years ago? And if so, why do you think that is?

Berry: I mean, that’s a great question. I go back to the success here and the success in the Xfinity Series that I had kind of right off the bat, jumping right from the late models, obviously proved that I was fairly prepared for that opportunity. I think that there’s more eyeballs on that series now than ever. I think with partners like FloRacing and those before them that broadcast these races, and now people are able to watch them. I think it has changed a lot.

When I initially started running the CARS Tour, that was our biggest thing for doing it, was just because it had a broadcast, with the tour that allowed our partners to watch, allowed Dale [Earnhardt Jr.] and Kelley [Earnhardt Miller] to watch. They weren’t able to be there week in and week out. So I think having those eyeballs on the series has been great for the drivers, and that’s across the board, I feel like, now with obviously the short track late model racing, but also dirt and sprint cars and everything that you can watch.

Massie: Is there a grassroots late model guy out there that has never gotten an opportunity to race in a national touring series that you think probably deserves one?

Berry: Man, I mean, there’s so many that it’s hard for me to even pick one out, right? And a lot of the guys that I would have picked in the last year or so have gotten opportunities, really. I mean, you look at now Connor Hall, Landon Lewis, Mini Tyrrell, these guys that I raced with some and have watched race, you’re seeing getting opportunities. There’s really too many to count.

I mean, I know we want to see everybody get opportunities, but that’s the problem with this stuff. It’s just there’s just not as many seats as there is good drivers. But ultimately, what all these series are doing by putting on the racing they have, hopefully more and more of these guys can get opportunities, and, hopefully, it works out.

Massie: Silly Season never stops really in the sport. It’s never too early to start talking about it. So where are you guys at right now in trying to get things worked out for the coming years?

Berry: Yeah, I mean, I feel good about where I’m at. Obviously, [I] wanna continue to run better, and I mean if we run probably like we did at Darlington, but even like coming here [to Martinsville] and starting third, if we have a good day today. These are the days we’re capable of doing. If we do that week in and week out, there won’t be any issues, I don’t feel like.

Massie: Do you have any good Wood Brothers stories? If you have any good, juicy Jon Wood stories, that’s what I’m really all about. But any good stories you can share?

Berry: It’s just been so much fun getting to work with them and going to that museum. I mean, really, I tell everybody that asks about it how cool it is to go there and see the history. And what’s been most impressive about the museum itself is just the meticulous organization of it all and so much stuff that they’ve kept and organized so perfectly and all the cars and stuff. They’ve just really done a great job, and I mean they’re just a great family across the board. Obviously, they love racing and have done a ton for the sport. It really is an honor to drive for them just because of the type of people they are. All of us, like I said, starting from me and Miles [Stanley, crew chief], the whole team, that’s what motivates us the most to go out and get good results for these guys, because they truly deserve it for the humans they are.