Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Dover Media Availability
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Josh Berry, driver of the No. 21 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Wood Brothers Racing, has a spot secured in the playoffs after his victory earlier this year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He stopped by the infield media center at Dover Motor Speedway to talk about this weekend’s race and the upcoming postseason.
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU HAVE ADVANCE AUTO PARTS ON THE CAR THIS WEEKEND. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT IT? “It’s really cool to have Advance Auto Parts on board this weekend, obviously the tie-in with the weekly series national championship I won in 2020. That was the first Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship, so it’s super cool to have them on the car this weekend. It reminds me of those times that I look back on very fondly. We’re at a great track and hopefully we can have a good weekend for them.”
YOU’VE WON HERE IN XFINITY AND MADE YOUR CUP DEBUT HERE. HOW DO YOU SAY YOUR CAREER HAS PROGRESSED SINCE THEN, AND WHAT CAN YOU TAKE FROM YOUR PREVIOUS RACES HERE THAT CAN HELP THIS WEEKEND? “Obviously, this is a place that I’ve had a lot of fun coming to, making my Cup debut. It’s always really special and I’ve had really good results here in the Xfinity Series. Obviously, getting that win and two second places with JRM, so this is a place I’ve always enjoyed coming to and I really love the racetrack. I’m excited to be here this weekend and hopefully we can continue that on with the 21 car.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN A MILES THE MONSTER TROPHY? “It was super cool. The first time I came here was 2021 and with no practice or qualifying we ran second in the ARCA race, second in the Xfinity race, won the Dash 4 Cash and realized I was that close to winning it, so that made me want it that much more, so to win it the next year was really cool and it’s an awesome trophy. It’s right there front-and-center in my living room. It’s really cool coming here and racing here.”
ONLY ONE TOP 10 SINCE THE VEGAS WIN. WHERE IS THE TEAM RIGHT NOW WITH SIX RACES TO GO IN THE REGULAR SEASON? “Obviously, we’d love to have some better results. We’ve had some bad luck here and there, some mistakes that have taken us out of good finishes, but I still feel like we have a lot of good tracks coming up. Here, I feel good about. Richmond, Iowa, those are places I ran good last year, and even the first round of the playoffs I think are three good tracks for us. We’ve been right there. We definitely need to get a little bit better, execute a little bit better, but I’m not necessarily panicked or anything at this point. It’s good to have the win in the bank and we’ll just keep trying to get better and hopefully hit our stride when the playoffs start.”
YOU GOT INTO JONES AND HOCEVAR LAST WEEK. WHAT WAS YOUR VIEW OF THOSE TWO INCIDENTS? “The 43 was a restart at turn seven. Obviously, we’re all jammed up into each other . The 4 car was on my right and kind of clipped me, and we just all got bottle-necked up and he got turned around . The 77 was a complete mistake on my part. I laid off at the bottom of one. I was trying to time it to where I could get up beside Carson and follow the 45 through and was just too fast to the top of the hill, got too far left and ran into Carson and knocked him off the track. It’s unfortunate. Obviously, I hate it for those guys. I tried calling Carson Monday and sent him a next, but never heard anything back. I did talk to Luke Monday morning to apologize to those guys and it’s just part of racing. We were on old tires and, for me, probably just trying a little too hard in that situation.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE NOSTALGIA OF THE BRICKYARD 400 NEXT WEEK? “It’s awesome going back to the Brickyard. It’s such an iconic facility for sure and it’s a crown jewel event that we all really look forward to, so it’s always really special getting to race in Indianapolis. I’m excited to go there next week with the Wood Brothers and hopefully we can have a solid race and a good result.”
ANY CONCERN THAT HOCEVAR HASN’T RESPONDED TO YOU, AND WHAT IS THE FOCUS IN PRACTICE TODAY? “Everybody handles things differently in those situations. Obviously, the contact at the end of that race opens the door for retaliation. If he decides to act on that, I gave him that opportunity. That’s part of racing. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m 34 years old now and I’ve seen a lot. Like I said, it is what it is at this point and whatever happens we’ll move on from it. As for today, we’ve got one 50-minute session now, so that will be interesting having all the cars out on the track at the same time. The track should rubber up pretty well and hopefully give us a good read for tomorrow. Hopefully, it’s just gonna be about finding a good balance on our car and qualifying well and setting us up good for tomorrow.”
