Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Racing Media Zoom Call
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Josh Berry, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the NASCAR Cup Series, is coming off back-to-back Top 10 finishes in Indianapolis and Iowa, where he was a season-best fourth. He spoke about that, along with his expectations for this weekend’s event at Richmond Raceway as part of this week’s Ford Media Zoom call.
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE THE LAST TWO WEEKS TO SEE BACK-TO-BACK TOP 10S? “Yeah, it’s been good. Indy, obviously went really well. I was pretty happy with our car in the race. It’s such a strategy race from the start, but we executed a really good strategy and had the car to back it up. To walk out of there with a seventh-place finish was really good for us, especially the year before when we were fifth on the last lap and ran out of gas. That one stung pretty bad, but it felt good to get a good result there, and then at Iowa I felt really good about our car in practice. We missed it a little bit in qualifying and felt like we just didn’t free up enough. I really felt like we should have been in the top five qualifying there, but then we battled out of it in the race and got a fourth-place finish. Two top 10s in a row. It easily could be three because I think at North Wilkesboro if we don’t get wrecked by the 20, the pit cycle deal burned us and created that situation, but we certainly had a car fast enough to run in the top five or top 10 there easy. I feel good about things. I feel like our short track program has always been strong, but I feel like we’ve turned a little bit of a corner for whatever reason and I’m excited to get to Richmond and New Hampshire and hopefully have two more good weekends.”
HOW HAVE THE TWO MONTHS BEEN SINCE ANNOUNCING YOU WON’T BE BACK WITH THE WOOD BROTHERS NEXT YEAR? “It’s been a little busier. I mean, we’ve had conversations. I don’t feel any closer now than I did two months ago if I’m being honest. We’ve had conversations. We’ve had good ones. We’ve had bad ones. We’ve had ones that we thought had potential. We had ones that we sat down and they asked for three million dollars, so it’s been a little bit of a challenge working through all of that. To be honest, I’m kind of to the point now where I can’t do much else other than just try to focus on Sundays and try to have days like we’ve had the last couple of weeks. Honestly, I feel like if we turn this deal around and run like we have the last three races and find ourselves in the top five and top 10 and nothing materializes, I kind of feel it shows more about the system than it does about me. We’ll just work through that as it comes.”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET A RIDE IN NASCAR THESE DAYS AND HOW HAS IT CHANGED? HOW DO RESULTS, MONEY AND SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE FIT IN? “I think results are obviously important, without a doubt. If you can run in the top five, top 10 in Cup races, I surely think the results should carry some weight. I don’t want to get into too many details about my opinions on everything necessarily, but it’s a tough battle. The system is difficult. The business model is difficult for the Truck and O’Reilly Series and the Cup Series to a point, but it’s just difficult. This is not anything new. I spent years racing late models and fighting for opportunities. This has all been well documented and not it’s kind of come back around the other way, unfortunately, just because of how this year has gone. It’s a challenge. I think that the funding is an important piece. I mean, a majority of the teams it’s hard to even get a conversation unless you already know you have at least something in place there to bring to the table. That’s just the nature of how it is. Hopefully, all three series continue to grow and it changes and hopefully in years to come that continues to go the other direction or get better. Somebody asked after Iowa what my thoughts were and it’s really the same. It’s kind of what I said. I want to go out and have good results on Sunday. That’s really the biggest thing right now to worry about and hopefully find somebody that wants me to drive their race car and I’ll gladly drive it. Hopefully, we can keep putting ourselves up front and on TV and in the news and in the media and hopefully that phone call comes.”
IF IT DOESN’T HAPPEN, WOULD YOU GO BACK TO LATE MODELS OR OWN A TEAM ON A LARGER SCALE? WHAT WOULD BE YOUR RACING OPTIONS? “Yeah, I don’t know. I’d be lying if I haven’t had those thoughts. Obviously, I have two young kids at home that are a very important part of this process and what we do as a family and what’s important on that side of things. I think anything is on the table. I feel, first and foremost, it’s about trying to find something to do in these top three series. If that doesn’t materialize, I don’t really have the answer for sure. If that doesn’t materialize, it really comes down to what’s the best for our family and going forward for our future for years to come. I don’t know that I have that answer yet, but when we get there, we’ll figure it out.”
IS IT FRUSTRATING TO KNOW THAT REGARDLESS OF YOUR RESULTS THAT YOU’RE NOT IN CONTROL OF YOUR OWN DESTINY BECAUSE SO MUCH IS DEPENDENT ON HOW MUCH SPONSORSHIP YOU CAN BRING? “I still think the results matter, for sure. I think when you get to that level I don’t know how they don’t matter. If we’re able to turn this deal around and end this deal stronger than what we started out, I’m sure that certainly helps, but I don’t know. It’s kind of like I said before, this is all conversations and things that I’ve had over the years. I’ve been in this position before and for a long time. I never let the frustration get the best of me then, and I don’t really expect it to now. Like I said, you just work on it one day at a time and see what happens. It’s just the reality of the situation, so I don’t know that it’s necessarily frustrating. The frustrating part has been how, especially how the beginning and middle part of the season went, at times from a speed standpoint, but really just misfortune and getting caught up in stuff that we had nothing to do with and how quickly it buried us in points. I feel like the narrative against me changed and now we’re coming off of races where we’ve run up front and been fast and it’s going the other way again. It’s just how it goes. Like I said, at this point I’m just trying to dig in deep and do the best I can these next 12-13 races, however many we’ve got left. I’m not doing anything different than I did from the beginning of the year. I’m still preparing the same. We’re still going through the same processes and putting in the same amount of work that we did at the start of the year, but things are just clicking better. The cars have had speed and we’ve been executing and those things lead to better results.”
IS IT HARD TO WRAP YOU HEAD AROUND THE FACT THAT A YEAR AGO YOU WERE A RACE WINNER AND IN THE PLAYOFFS. YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T EXPECT TO BE IN THIS POSITION AT THE START OF THE SEASON, RIGHT? “Things change quickly in this sport. I can think back to so many races where we’ve been up front and in the top 10 or top 15 and whether it’s getting caught up in an accident or pit road or whatever, it’s such a results-based sport. If you don’t have the results, things change quickly. Like I said, I’ve been on both sides of it in the last five or six years. I told Burton before the race, he texted me and asked me what I wanted to express about my future, and I told him, ‘Look, I’m racing for my career.’ I know that and I’m not uncomfortable in that scenario. I mean, I’ve done it plenty of times. I’ve been in this scenario plenty of times, whether it was in the O’Reilly Series or the Cup opportunities with HMS and the Cup opportunity when SHR was shutting down. I’ve been in this scenario many times and I don’t feel uncomfortable at all about what we’re up against. It’s just about finding a way to get things going the right way, continue these good results and hopefully something materializes from it.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY SENSE IF THERE’S SOMETHING IN NOAPS OR TRUCKS IF CUP DOESN’T WORK OUT? “I’m up for whatever. It just seems like there’s not a lot of movement on the Cup side. People kind of have it mapped out of what they think is gonna happen and unless something changes that I don’t foresee happening, then it doesn’t seem like there are very many opportunities on the Cup side. That leads me back into what I was saying earlier with the O’Reilly Series and the Truck Series being very heavily dependent on the funding that you have to kind of put those deals together and make them work. That limits your options pretty quickly, so we’re just trying to keep doing what we’re doing and working on it. We’ve gotten some good help from everybody at KHI and making those phone calls and helping try to navigate and figure out what’s out there. We’re gonna keep digging and, in the meantime, try to go out on Sunday and have good results.”
