One of the biggest breakthrough stars of the 2021 Nascar racing season has been Josh Berry, who was announced earlier this week as the full-time driver of a coveted JR Motorsports ride in 2022. As Josh prepares to make his second-ever Cup start today, let’s take a look at this local driver turned Nascar prospect:
—Josh was born on October 20 (1990), sharing a birthday with Margaret Dumont, Mickey Mantle, and Tom Petty. Huh, that’s strange—I mentioned Mantle and Bob Costas and Billy Crystal are nowhere to be seen.
—Josh worked as a bank teller early in his racing career to supplement his income. To anyone reading this under the age of 25, people used to have to go into banks to make deposits or withdraw money, and the tellers would handle those transactions.
—Berry met future team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. through online racing sim iRacing. Meanwhile the only people I ever met in racing online were weirdos claiming to be Jeff Burton.
—Josh started out in Nascar’s national touring series by running a few races here and there in Xfinity and Truck competition, mostly for JRM. I mean, yes, he ran for Obaika Racing, but the less said about that team, the better.
—Berry had an auspicious start to his 2021 season—with twelve races scheduled for JRM, he was spun around by Human Caution Flag Santino Ferrucci at Phoenix. Berry gave Ferrucci the double-middle-finger, thus gaining him a fanbase in Formula-style racing as well.
—Josh’s biggest success thus far came at Martinsville, posting his first-ever Xfinity Series win. He joined Brett Bodine as the other other driver to do so, and hey, Brett wound up leading lots of Cup races! Granted, they were as a pace car driver, but…