Following the June announcement that Stewart-Haas Racing would be formally closing its doors and selling three of four charters, there has been a lot of Silly Season speculation. Josh Berry was one of the biggest names to be added to that list.

Drivers Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece all immediately began reaching out to contacts in the sport to find a new ride. The first domino to fall was in this conversation for the Wood Brothers Mustang Dark Horse, Chase Briscoe. upon his announcement that he would be racing the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing, Briscoe mentioned that JGR was the only team that did not ask him how much sponsorship he was bringing to the table. That would of course imply that WBR did.

The next name to come up in the discussion was not Wood Brothers current full-time driver, Harrison Burton, who frankly has not impressed in the legendary 21. That name was SHR driver Josh Berry.

Wednesday morning, Wood Brothers Racing and Josh Berry made it official. Josh would be the second domino as they announced he would be piloting the 21 into 2025. Jon Wood, the new president of Wood Brothers Racing stated that Josh was the top candidate the entire time to join the team. The team did not announce the crew chief for the 21 car, however they did mention that whoever it may be would come from the Penske camp. Therefor eliminating Rodney Childers.

The Hendersonville, Tennessee native was announced at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord, North Carolina as a multi-year contract. He will be looking to improve over current driver Harrison Burton’s performance starting in February. In his third full season in the Cup Series, Burton has disappointed many with his continued lackluster performance.

In 19 races so far in 2024, Burton has only had five performances better than 30th position and scored only five top 10 finishes in the three years in the car.