Josh Berry prevailed through a difficult stretch to the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season by notching a seventh-place result in the 2026 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 26.
The 35-year-old Berry from Hendersonville, Tennessee, qualified in 26th place for Sunday’s main event at Indianapolis, and he spent the early portions of the event racing within the top-25 mark. Then, as a majority of the field of 39 executed various pitting strategies by pitting their respective entries under green, Berry, who elected to remain on the track further than most, moved up to as high as third place before he pitted his No. 21 PPG Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry for the first time by Lap 43. Then through a caution that flew shortly after on Lap 44 and a one-lap shootout to conclude the first stage period, he was shuffled back to 18th place.
The event’s second stage period that started on Lap 55 featured Berry restarting in 17th place. He retained the spot for the majority of this stage period before the leaderboard started to shuffle again as most of the field pitted at various points, starting by Lap 73. Through the pit stops, Berry took advantage of this by moving up to second place through Lap 92. After John Hunter Nemechek pitted, Berry led his only lap of the event, Lap 93, before he pitted under green. When a Lap 96 caution flew due to a single-car incident and the second stage period concluded under caution, he was strapped back in 23rd place.
Berry restarted with the third and final stage period with 56 laps remaining in 21st place. The Tennessee native retained the spot over the next 10 laps before the caution returned due to debris on the course. After pitting with the field under caution, Berry exited pit road in 12th place. He then spent a single lap during a Lap 41 restart racing inside the top-10 mark and battling Ryan Preece for eighth place when the caution returned due to a multi-car wreck in the third turn, in which Berry was ahead. During the final restart with 34 laps remaining, Berry restarted in 10th place and spent the event’s remainder gaining three additional spots before he took the checkered flag in seventh place.
With his seventh-place result, Berry achieved his highest-finishing result through 22-scheduled starts in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, his first top-10 career result at Indianapolis and his first top-10 result since finishing in 10th place at Martinsville Speedway in mid-March. His previous best result was ninth place during the 2026 Daytona 500 in mid-February, as he also recorded Wood Brothers Racing’s first top-10 result at Indianapolis since Harrison Burton finished in third place on the track’s road course venue in 2022.
Prior to this year’s Brickyard 400 event at Indianapolis, Berry was coming off a 36th-place result at North Wilkesboro Speedway with a DNF and had finished 26th or worse a total of 17 times. He was also mired in 33rd place in the 2026 driver standings and trailing the cutline to make the Chase by 261 points. After Indianapolis, he remained in 33rd place and is 254 points below the cutline.
Amid Berry’s deficit to make the Chase with four regular-season events remaining throughout the month of August, he also has 14 events remaining on the 2026 Cup Series schedule overall before he departs Wood Brothers Racing and weighs his racing options for the 2027 season. Nevertheless, Berry was pleased with rallying from his slow start to his Indianapolis weekend by netting a strong on-track result mired with no incidents and misfortunes.
“Overall, just a really solid day,” Berry said on TNT Sports. “We struggled a little bit Friday. I thought [crew chief] Miles [Stanley] and the team did a great job with adjustments for Saturday. Just early draw and just didn’t get a great qualifying lap in, but felt good about our car. From there on, we just steadily worked our way forward. Miles called a great race, a lot of strategy and everything and all that, and had some good restarts at the end. [I] Didn’t have everything that could go wrong go wrong like it’s been lately. [It] Feels good to finally have a smooth day with no issues and end up where we deserve.”
Josh Berry’s 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season resumes on August 9 at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, for the Iowa Corn 350. The event’s broadcast time is slated to commence at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN Radio, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
