JOSH BERRY
Atlanta Advance
No. 4 Harrison’s Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing
Event Overview
● Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 2 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 25
● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia
● Layout: 1.54-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 260 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Notes of Interest
● Josh Berry heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway on the heels of his first Daytona 500, where the rookie started 30th after suffering a mechanical issue in his Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying race. Berry and the No. 4 team finished 25th in the rain-delayed crown jewel event Monday but showed speed throughout the 500-mile race, running as high as second before being collected in an incident on pit road.
● This Sunday, Berry heads to the superspeedway-like Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second points-paying race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. Coming off the Daytona 500, Berry is focused on implementing the lessons he learned from last weekend when he takes to the 1.54-mile Atlanta oval. Berry has made six NASCAR Xfinity starts at Atlanta, four of them on the track that was repaved and reconfigured to facilitate superspeedway-style racing prior to the 2022 season. In those four most recent starts, the driver of the No. 4 Harrison’s Ford Mustang has one top-five finish, two top-10s, and has started each within the top-10. His best finish came in July 2022, when Berry took the checkered flag in the runner-up position. Coincidently, that Xfinity Series car was also sponsored by Harrison’s.
● The 33-year-old driver has 47 Xfinity Series starts on intermediate tracks – tracks between 1 and 2 miles in length. Of Berry’s five series wins, four of them have come on intermediate tracks – Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, and twice at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
● Berry also has turned laps in the NextGen car at Atlanta when he filled in for an injured Chase Elliott a year ago. In that race – his second time in the NextGen car – he started 21st and finished 18th. Most importantly in that race, Berry experienced drafting and racing the latest-generation Cup Series car on the new Atlanta layout.
● Crew chief Rodney Childers will dive deep into his notebook for Atlanta in preparation for Sunday’s Cup Series race. Childers has called the shots for two wins, five top-five finishes, nine top-10s, and 1,123 laps led at the track. In fact, in Childers’ first race with former No. 4 driver Kevin Harvick in 2014, the duo won the pole position on the old Atlanta layout. They then found victory lane in 2018 after leading 181 laps. Just two year later, Childers and Harvick found their winning combination again and led 151 laps in that event.
● Harrison’s makes its debut on the No. 4 Ford Mustang Sunday, sporting the green and brown colors synonymous with hard work. The green represents grass and farm produce while the brown accents represent dirt and hard-working blue-collar Americans. Harrison’s will be the primary partner for two races this season – Sunday at Atlanta and May 19 during the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. The Spartanburg, South Carolina-based clothing and footwear company has ridden to victory lane on two occasions with Berry in the Xfinity Series – the first at Charlotte in May 2022 and then at Las Vegas in October 2022.
Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 Harrison’s Ford Mustang
You just finished the Daytona 500 – a speedway-style race. Now you’re heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway, which now has a similar racing style. What carries over and what doesn’t from last week at Daytona to this week at Atlanta?
“I think there will be a lot of similarities with the draft, the strategy, and continuing to work on the communication with Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and Eddie (D’Hondt, spotter). The biggest difference at Atlanta is that it’s starting to age a little bit. Hopefully, handling becomes a little bit more of a factor this time around.”
Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers have won twice together at Atlanta. How much are you leaning on Rodney’s success with Harvick in preparation for this weekend?
“With Rodney’s success there, the only thing that is similar is the location. The reconfiguration and the repave have really changed the racing at Atlanta, so we have a new opportunity to continue their success in the past, but basically on a new layout. I think with the way we could work through the field in Daytona, that gives us confidence heading into the weekend that we can do the same at Atlanta.”
What does it mean to have Harrison’s on board for the first time this weekend at Atlanta?
“I’m excited to have Harrison’s on board this weekend. They have been a big supporter of mine throughout my career and I’ve had a lot of success with Harrison’s, so hopefully we can continue our luck together and win a race that is pretty close to their home base.”
What are your expectations heading into Atlanta?
“There were a lot of positives coming out of the Daytona 500 weekend. Obviously, we experienced some issues here and there but I thought our team showed a lot of speed and we were able to race up front a good bit. So my expectation is that we can do the same thing and build off our first weekend and continue to race up front. Hopefully, this weekend we can get a better finish than what we had last week because that didn’t represent the race we ran.”
No. 4 Harrison’s Team Roster
Primary Team Members
Driver: Josh Berry
Hometown: Hendersonville, Tennessee
Crew Chief: Rodney Childers
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Car Chief: Robert “Cheddar” Smith
Hometown: Whitewater, Wisconsin
Engineer: Dax Gerringer
Hometown: Gibsonville, North Carolina
Engineer: Billy Kuebler
Hometown: Saline, Michigan
Spotter: Eddie D’Hondt
Hometown: Levittown, New York
Over-The-Wall Members
Front Tire Changer: Daniel Coffey
Hometown: Granite Falls, North Carolina
Rear Tire Changer: Daniel Smith
Hometown: Concord, North Carolina
Tire Carrier: Jeremy Howard
Hometown: Delhart, Texas
Jack Man: Brandon Banks
Hometown: High Point, North Carolina
Fuel Man: Evan Marchal
Hometown: Westfield, Indiana
Road Crew Members
Mechanic: Tyler Trosper
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Mechanic: Chris Capaldi
Hometown: Armada, Michigan
Tire Specialist: Zac Lupien
Hometown: Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Engine Tuner: Robert Brandt
Hometown: Mobile, Alabama
Transporter Co-Driver: Jake Zierhoffer
Hometown: Billerica, Massachusetts
Transporter Co-Driver: Stephen Mitchell
Hometown: Woodville, Ohio
