The last time NASCAR Cup Series teams were in the Peach State, Josh Berry and the No. 21 team showed a strong performance in the Wood Brothers Racing Ford.
Berry led 56 circuits around the 1.54 mile oval, and claimed the win in stage number one of the Ambetter Health 400.
Berry stayed in contention for the rest of the event working with his defacto teammates at Team Penske, before being involved in an overtime accident and relegated to a 25th place finish.
The Hendersonville, TN native is looking to build off of the strong February showing in this weekend’s return to Hampton, GA.
“I feel good going back there. I felt like we had a really strong race there in the spring. We led laps and won a stage. We were in the battle the whole race, so it’s been fun going back and reviewing that one with my team together and learning and working with my spotter, Jason, and Miles on how to up our communication a little bit better and do a little bit better. Honestly, it was a really good race for us and we found ourselves in position, so I feel if our car is as good as it was in the spring, we’ll have a chance at it.”
Just as he did in February, the No. 21 will be looking for fellow “blue oval” drivers in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400.
“In general it’s pretty easy to see that we try to work together the best we can and take care of each other and our teammates and our teammates at Ford to keep as many numbers up front as we can when we get to the end of the stages and the end of the race. It’s pretty simple. If you can have people around you at the end of these races that you can trust and rely on, it just slows down the decision making at the end of these races.”
A new addition to the 2025 season is the “In-Season Challenge” which pairs the top 32 drivers in the series against eachother for a 5-race competition, with the winner taking home a million dollars.
Josh Berry is paired up against Jon Hunter Nemechek heading into Saturday’s opening race and is excited about the opportunity.
“I think all of us will be paying attention to it and who we’re paired up against and how they’re doing. It should be interesting to follow, for sure. Obviously, a drafting style track will be a lot about just making it to the finish. That will play a big part of that. It will be hard to have a perfect bracket with a place like Atlanta because you never know. An accident can take you out or something like that, but it will be exciting to follow. I have not really overly thought that much about it, but we’ll pay attention to how John Hunter’s race is going compared to ours and hopefully we can come out on top.”
Tune into coverage of the Quaker State 400 Available At Walmart on Saturday beginning at 6pm on Owensboro’s Home for NASCAR, WVJS.
-BS