“Just the first of many”: Josh Berry optimistic following top 5 finish for Wood Brothers at Phoenix

Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry wrapped up his weekend at Phoenix Raceway with a fourth-place finish. This marked the best non-superspeedway result for the team since 2022. The #21 Ford Mustang driver remains optimistic about securing more top-five finishes this season.

Berry lined up fourth on the grid for the Shriners Children's 500 and was classified sixth at the end of the first stage. He dropped to the back of the field in the second stage but gradually progressed through the field without using up his option tires. He cracked the top five in the final stint and held his position through the late-race restarts.

Josh Berry reflected on the strong result for Wood Brothers Racing, a team that had struggled in the past seasons with Harrison Burton behind the wheel of the #21 Ford. The 34-year-old said he is learning a lot from the veteran drivers at Penske and is getting his mojo back with the new team.

With a top-five finish under his belt, Berry hopes to set a new standard for the team, aiming to replicate such results throughout the season. He said (via PRN):

"I just felt like myself again out there. We've been grinding the last year or so and this group's been great for me. I've really enjoyed getting to work with these guys and having some great teammates out there, like Joey [Logano] and Ryan [Blaney] to lean off of and learn from."

"I feel like this is just the first of many. This is the standard for the #21 team. We feel like we can run up here and we just got some things to iron out. All in all, it was a really solid day!" he added.

Josh Berry was the best finishing Ford driver at Phoenix Raceway and moved up to 21st in the regular season standings. He also took part in a tire test at the one-mile oval on Monday, with NASCAR evaluating the possibility of using the softer tire compound for the season finale.

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Josh Berry reflects on the option tire experiment at Phoenix Raceway

Josh Berry credited NASCAR and Goodyear for experimenting with the option tire at Phoenix Raceway, noting that it made the race more exciting from a driver's perspective. He admitted that the one-mile oval had previously struggled to produce good racing, and that the options tires were a welcome change. He said that it added more strategic variability to the race.

In a post-race interview with Frontstretch, the Wood Brothers Racing driver said:

"I mean it just opens up the strategy a lot, right? Everybody has been so hard on this track, and we saw three amazing finishes this weekend and it just goes to show you that it’s not always the track. Sometimes you just got to work and figure out the combination that puts on a good show. From my driver’s seat, I felt like that was a really good race." [from 1:53]

The #21 Wood Brothers Racing driver also commented on using two-tire compounds for the championship decider. He said that the title fight shouldn't be determined by which driver saves more option tires for the end of the race, which is the popular strategy.

After wrecking out of the opening rounds of the race, Berry finally recorded a solid result at Phoenix. NASCAR heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for the Pennzoil 400 on March 16.