Josh Berry’s path to the NASCAR Cup Series was filled with missteps and doubts he’d ever make it to the sport’s premiere level.
Berry, who took over the Stewart-Haas No. 4 seat previously
occupied by NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick, spent a decade or so sweating it out
at small, tight tracks like nearby Florence and Dillon speedways learning from
anyone he could how to succeed at stock car racing’s highest level.
“I’m not going to lie, there were plenty of days that I’d
never thought I’d make it to NASCAR’s top two series,” said Berry, 33. “But I
was lucky enough to get an opportunity and make the most of it. Now, here I am
Cup racing.”
Berry and NASCAR’s best are at Darlington Raceway for the
latest nod to the sport’s history at its 10th throwback weekend.
The Goodyear 400, the halfway point of NASCAR’s 26-race
regular season, takes place Sunday. Darlington, the circuit’s oldest
superspeedway that first held a race in 1950, has turned its spring weekend
into a celebration of its past.
This time, the theme is NASCAR’s grass roots, where racers
and teams honor the bullrings, dirt tracks and layouts where drivers, crew
chiefs and pit personnel first learned about racing.
“That’s what drives our sport,” Kyle Busch said Friday.
“There’s obviously a dream that these younger guys and gals have to make it to
the top. They want to get there one day and they come from the grass-roots
level.”
Berry’s car will feature a paint scheme modeled after crew
chief Rodney Childers’ success as a late model driver in the late 1990s and
early 2000s. Berry and Childers unveiled the car last month during a visit to
the South Carolina’s Governor’s Mansion, and when Childers realized his own
throwback, he said he had to choke back the tears.
“That 1998 year was probably one of the biggest turning
points of my (driving) career,” Childers recalled.
Longtime racer Ron Barfield, now owner of Dillon Motor
Speedway in South Carolina, about 40 miles from Darlington, believes that
on-track experience is essential to success at any level. He appreciates the
time young racers spend utilizing simulators and other modern tools, but it’s
hard to learn competing under pressure without cutting your teeth at small
tracks.
“Nothing can take the place of going racing,” he said.
Busch, a two-time NASCAR champion, agrees. His son, Brexton,
who’ll turn 9 later this month, is learning how to race in running junior
sprint cars, outlaw karts and Bandoleros.
The elder Busch has had a blast watching his son compete at
the youngest, coach’s pitch-type levels of the sport.
“That’s been fun to see,” he said.
Chase Briscoe, Berry’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, will
run a No. 14 car tribute to Briscoe’s father Kevin that he used during a
20-year career that included more than 200 feature wins. The elder Briscoe won
the 1993 track title at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Indiana, and five
championships at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway.
“Growing up, I probably took for granted how good he was,”
Briscoe said. “I just thought it was normal, when you went to the racetrack
that your dad was going to win the race.”
Cole Custer, who won the Xfinity Series last year, recalled
when he first got behind the wheel at 5 years old, all he wanted to do was race
around, no matter where he finished. It wasn’t until he became a teenager that
his focus and ambition changed and the drive that led him to a title kicked in.
“As a kid, I’d never thought I’d be a NASCAR champion,” said
Custer, 26. “To have that title is huge and, hopefully, we can just keep that
momentum.”
Berry, Harvick’s No. 4 replacement, is steadily learning his
way as a full-time Cup Series driver. He finished 11th at Richmond on March 31,
his best showing for Stewart-Haas so far.
“I knew it was going to be difficult,” he said. “This is top
level of NASCAR racing. But we’ve seen a lot of improvement. We’ve had really
fast cars, we’ve been qualifying better, racing better, now we’ve just got to
put everything together.” AP