Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Southern 500 Media Availability
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Josh Berry, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse, will be making his NASCAR Cup Series playoff debut tomorrow night at Darlington Raceway. The Wood Brothers Racing driver stopped by the infield media center before qualifying to talk about this weekend.
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND WORKS WELL FOR YOU HERE AT DARLINGTON AND HOW DO YOU COMMUNICATE THAT WITH MILES TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR CAR? “I feel pretty comfortable here. I think that really started in the 4 car last spring, working with Rodney and studying a lot of Kevin’s data here, and we had a really good car. That kind of translated and built some confidence that I think I was able to translate to the Southern 500 last year and then the 21 car in the spring. I feel good. I think we ran well in both of those races last year, ran well in the spring. I don’t feel like there’s any reason why we can’t do it again this weekend.”
WHAT DOES THE SOUTHERN 500 MEAN TO YOU? “It’s high up there. It’s such a fun track, for one, but just a historic race. It’s a tough race, a grind. I think we all want to survive that and be in Victory Lane at the end of the day.”
DOES IT OPEN THE DOOR FOR YOU TO SCORE A LOT OF POINTS AT GATEWAY NEXT WEEK WITH PENSKE’S SUCCESS THERE? “Yeah, I think so. Obviously, they were super strong there last year and, honestly, personally, I feel like we had a pretty good race going. I got a speeding penalty at Gateway last year, but our pace was really good and then we blew a tire and wrecked. Ultimately, I’m confident going into these first three rounds. We don’t have to really do anything crazy. We just need to be solid and consistent like we know we can and limit our mistakes and I think we’ll find ourselves in the hunt when we get to Bristol.”
AVERAGE FINISH OF 20.8 GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS. WHAT HAS YOUR ACHILLES HEEL BEEN DURING THE MIDDLE PART OF THE YEAR ENTERING THE PLAYOFFS? “I don’t really feel like, especially when it comes to the oval tracks and intermediates it wasn’t a performance thing, whether it was mistakes on pit road or getting caught up in accidents, there’s a number of races that I think back on. We were here in the spring, Martinsville, we were in the lead and break. There’s a lot of things that happen. I feel like some in our control, some outside of our control. The biggest Achilles heel in this whole deal is gonna be the Roval, but I feel like we’ve made gains on the road course program and when it comes to the Roval I feel like I think I finished about 20th there last year. I feel I’ve gotten better since then, but we’ve got to make it to that point before we start worrying about it, honestly.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS OF JUST MAKING THE PLAYOFFS? “It’s a big deal. It’s our biggest goal setting out this year. Obviously, to win my first race and if you do that, more than likely, you make the playoffs and here we are. It’s really cool. It’s been a fun year working with these guys. Everybody at the Wood Brothers has done a really good job. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m proud of the gains we’ve made with the 21 car compared to the last couple of years, and I feel like we’re set up to keep on doing that. Making the playoffs is fun, but, obviously, we want to be competitive and have a good start to this deal.”
DO YOU HAVE TO GUARD AGAINST COMPLACENCY OF MAKING THE PLAYOFFS AND JUST BEING HAPPY TO BE HERE? “We certainly have a long time to reflect on just making the playoffs, I guess. These guys, we’re prepared. We’re confident going into this deal. We thought these tracks line up good. We don’t need to do anything spectacular, like I said. We just need to limit our mistakes and be consistent and see how far we can go. Honestly, I feel like I’m in a good place and the team is in a good place. I think we’re ready to go.”
CAN THIS BE A WILD CARD TRACK WITH HOW WILD THE FINISH CAN GET? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES HERE? “That’s why we get paid the big bucks, right? Here we are. It’s the playoffs. It’s gonna be high-pressure and high intensity, but there’s no place better to be racing at, I feel like, for all that. I’m excited for it.”
THERE WAS A CARS TOUR RACE IN FLORENCE LAST NIGHT. WHAT’S IT LIKE VYING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP AT DARLINGTON RACING FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS? “It’s awesome. It’s been a super fun year. It’s great to see how things have changed so much in the last four or five years. I watched that race last night. I thought it was a really good race. I kind of missed being out there, but obviously I want to be focused on this weekend, so maybe we can get back out there sometime soon.”
THE PENSKE GROUP SEEMS CONCERNED ABOUT THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS. DO YOU SHARE THAT CONCERN? “Not really. I feel like we look at Kansas, I thought we were really strong at Kansas, especially at the end of the race. I got a speeding penalty there and came through the field. I had a really good push there at the end, and then obviously Vegas we were strong. I feel good, like I said earlier, about pretty much everywhere we’re going. We just need to limit our mistakes. If we can build off what we had in the spring, I think we’ll be in good shape.”
WAS THERE ANY SPEECH OR TALK THIS WEEK FROM YOU OR MILES TO THE TEAM? “No, not really. It’s kind of more business as usual. It’s easy to overthink these situations and over do it. You work all year long to prepare and get in your routine of doing things week in and week out to prepare for every week. I think a lot of times when you get to this point people overthink it and over-prepare. I feel like that can change your process and change your thinking going into this race that you’ve got to do more than what you’ve done all year. I just don’t feel like that’s the case. I think that just comes back from my background racing short tracks and stuff, and working on my race car. If you go to a big race, I never worked harder on my car than I did every other week. You just get in your routine and you do the things that you need to do to prepare and you just go out and try to execute. I feel like our team itself is in a great place. They’re really excited for the opportunity and feel like we’ve left a lot of potential on the table throughout the year and now it’s just time to capitalize on that.”
HAVE YOU EVEN TALKED ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS OR IS IT JUST ANOTHER WEEK? “We’ve talked about it a little bit. Obviously, it’s all the things that I’m saying, that we just need to go be solid. We don’t have to go hit a home run. We just need to go be solid. I think we feel like three top 10s will be enough points probably to make it to the Round of 12. That’s where our head is at, so as long as we keep doing that, there’s not too much to think on until something changes.”
