by Patrick Zier | Mar 21, 2025 |
For Josh Berry, the question has never been – or never should have been – about the driver. The question has always been about the car. In NASCAR, particularly at the Cup level, you can’t win without a competitive car.
Kyle Larson can’t win without a competitive car. Christopher Bell, the sport’s new golden boy, can’t win without a competitive car. Neither can Joey Logano, or Denny Hamlin, or anybody else you want to name.
Kyle Busch has proven that. A big-time winner at Joe Gibbs Racing, one of the sport’s two elite teams, Busch’s career has faltered since his move to Richard Childress Racing. And that’s not because of Busch. It’s because RCR simply doesn’t have the personnel or resources to compete with JGR or Hendrick Motorsports or Penske Racing and maybe some others as well.
Berry, who shocked almost everybody by winning at Las Vegas last Sunday, has mostly been on the fringes of the racing world. He’s a hard worker who has never really been given a fair chance to succeed. Last year, he finally got a full time ride at Stewart-Haas, but Stewart-Haas was falling apart; had been falling apart for a number of years, and was no longer relevant in the Cup series.
But before he got a shot with Stewart-Haas, and with almost no experience in a Cup car, Berry had shown that given an opportunity he could make the most of it.
In 2023, Berry was called on as a replacement driver at Hendrick Motorsports. Now jumping into somebody else’s car and working with somebody else’s team – and being successful doing it is almost impossible in NASCAR. And this is especially true at a place like Hendrick, which fields cars capable of winning races every week.
When you put a replacement driver in a good Cup car, what you hope for is that he simply finishes the race. There are no expectations beyond that, which is why what Berry did is so exceptional.
First, Hendrick put him in Chase Elliott’s Chevy after Elliott was injured in a snowboarding accident. Over five races, Berry’s finishes included a 10th at Phoenix and a second at Richmond, far better than anybody could have anticipated.
Later, when Alex Bowman suffered a back injury, Hendrick called on Berry again. And again, Berry was up to the task. Berry subbed for Bowman in three races, recording a 10th at Dover, and also ran the All-Star race after winning the open to get in the main event.
Now none of this was a secret. Everybody knew about it, and everybody shrugged it off. So when Stewart-Haas folded at the end of 2024, there was Chase Briscoe, considered the prize catch of the Stewart-Haas group, headed to JGR. And there was Ryan Preece, headed to Roush-Fenway-Keslowski, which was getting strong support from Ford. And there was Noah Gregson, headed to Front Row Motorsports, another team Ford was heavily invested in.
And there was Berry, stuck with Wood Brothers Racing, once one of the premier teams in Cup but at a dead end for the last 20 years or so. Nobody in the garage gave Wood Brothers a second thought.
Other than on superspeedways, tracks where anybody can win if they are lucky enough to avoid the “big wreck” and happen to be in the right lane at the right time on the last lap, Wood Brothers had done nothing.
The last time the Wood Brothers won a race on a track other than a superspeedway before Berry’s win at Vegas was 2017, when Ryan Blaney won at Pocono. And the last time before that was 2001, when Elliott Sadler wonn at Bristol.
But with beefed up support from Penske Racing, it looks like the Wood Brothers may have something going. In addition to winning at Vegas, Berry also scored a fourth at Phoenix in their car, so maybe they’re for real.
For years, Berry has been ignored. But as he proved in his brief stint with Hendrick, put Berry in a competitive car and he will compete, and maybe now he’s in a competitive car. And if he is, you better move over, ’cause he’s coming through.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Homestead: 1-Tyler Reddick, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner at Homestead: Reddick. Top five, 1-Reddick, 2-Ryan Blaney, 3-Denny Hamlin, 4-Bell, 5-Chase Elliott.
Last week’s OGS Vegas picks: 1-Reddick, 2-Larson, 3-Blaney. Vegas winner: Josh Berry. OGS season record: 1-2.
OGS Competition Index top 10 after three races: 1-Bell, 114 points; 2-Berry 73, 3-William Byron 72, 4-Larson 41, Daniel Suarez 41; 6-Reddick 40, Hamlin 40; 8-Ryan Preece 37, 9-Kyle Busch 28, 10-Elliott 20.
OGS top 10 on intermediate tracks: 1-Berry 53, 2-Suarez 41, 3-Preece 30, 4-Byron 21, 5-Larson 11, Ross Chastain 11; 7-Austin Cindric 8, 8-Joey Logano 7, 9-Reddick 5, 10-Bubba Wallace 2.
by Patrick Zier | Mar 15, 2025 |
We could talk about tires, but when it comes to NASCAR, you can talk about tires every week because they’re one of the most important variables in any given race. And that’s especially true now that NASCAR has added an option tire to the mix, a softer compound that gives you a lot of get up and go for a short amount of time. It’s kind of a gimmick really, kind of like using two different footballs in an NFL game. But enough of that.
NASCAR is in Las Vegas this weekend, and the biggest question is whether or not Christopher Bell, who is really on a roll, can win his fourth straight race. Bell has won on a superspeedway, a road course and a short track and if he can conquer Las Vegas’ intermediate sized oval, he will have accomplished something that’s never been done before – winning four in a row on four different kinds of tracks.
Bell and his Joe Gibbs Racing team are really humming, and he gives a lot of credit to the guys and the guys give a lot of credit to him, which is one of the reasons they’re having a lot of success.
“What you are seeing is everybody pulling the rope in the same direction,” Bell said after his win at Phoenix last Sunday. “Everybody’s doing their job to the best of their abilities,” he continued. “This is what I knew would come out of this team.
“It came from Adam (crew chief Adam Stevens)” Bell went on. “I didn’t know what this team was capable of but Adam knew what this team was capable of. We’re finally able to see the fruit of it. I’m just a small part of it. The last couple years we’ve been close, everyone on our team could feel it.
“We could feel it, but it was just like fighting against the current. Something would not work and take us out of contention. But we were close,” Bell said. “This team is working together right now and that’s what it’s all about. it’s not about me, it’s about everybody on our team. I haven’t changed as a driver. I’m the same driver I was back in 2021.”
Well, maybe not. “I think what you see, if you look back, is he’s (Bell) extremely good everywhere we go,” Stevens commented. “But the short tracks, he’s got a little bit of something extra. I think he’s good at micromanaging his line and finding that little bit of grip and willing to move around and change things.
“He has the ability to adapt, I’m saying adapt lap to lap and adapt as the race goes,” Stevens said. “If we see something with another team’s driving style, we an relay it to him and he can instantly duplicate it.
“These short tracks have a way of changing quite a bit. You saw the groove move around as the tires age. He’s just got so much talent that eventually I think all the tracks are going to look like that to him, that he can just do it anywhere we go,” Stevens concluded.
NASCAR NOTES:
Three most likely winners at Las Vegas: 1-Tyler Reddick, 2-Kyle Larson, 3-Dave Blaney. Last year’s winners at Las Vegas: First race, Larson. Second race, Reddick. Top five finishers at Phoenix last week: 1-Bell, 2-Denny Hamlin, 3-Larson, 4-Josh Berry, 5-Chris Buescher. Old Guy Sport’s Phoenix picks: 1-Larson, 2-Blaney, 3-Hamlin. Bell wins race, OGS 1-1 for the season. Top 10 in OGS Competition Index: 1-Bell 114 points, 2-William Byron 51, 3-Hamlin 40, 4-Reddick 35, 5-Larson 30, 6-Kyle Busch 28, 7-Chase Elliott 20, 8-Joey Logano 12, 9-Shane van Gisbergen 11, 10-Chris Buescher 10. OGS top 10 on short tracks: 1-Bell 60, 2-Hamlin 40, 3-Larson 30, 4-Logano 12, 5-Byron 11, 6-Buescher 10, 7-Ryan Preece 5, 8-Austin Cindric 1.
by Patrick Zier | Mar 14, 2025 |
Florida’s Billy Napier has been on the hot seat so long he’s probably wearing asbestos pants. After two so-so seasons where his teams battled to reach the .500 mark, Napier needed to make something happen in 2024 to save his job, and when he got off to an unimpressive 4-5 start, everybody figured he was gone.
Then, with the clock ticking and time running out and Florida getting ready to give Napier his final paycheck, the Gators began to turn it around. First, they beat LSU, ranked No. 21 in the country, 27-16. That made them 5-5. Then they beat Ole Miss, ranked No. 9 in the country, 24-17. That made them 6-5. Then they beat arch-rival FSU, 31-11. That made them 7-5 and got them in the Gasparilla Bowl, where the beat Tulane, 33-8. If you’re keeping track, that made them 8-5 for the season.
Now nobody in Gainesville gives you a parade for finishing 8-5, but enough people who mattered decided that instead of pushing Napier out the door and, sigh, starting over again and maybe going through the same stuff again they’d give Napier one more shot to get the Gators where they’re supposed to be. And at Florida, that means contending for the SEC championship and a spot in the playoffs.
And, with spring practice underway, Napier knows that. Another Gasparilla Bowl (he’s been to two) won’t cut it. This year, Florida not only needs to play well against the SEC’s big boys, it needs to beat them, or almost all of them anyway.
And Florida – and Napier – have a shot to pull that off. With a slew of starters back on both offense and defense including a difference maker at quarterback, 6-foot-3. 241-pound super soph J.D. Lagway; Jaden Baugh, another soph who was the team’s leading rusher a year ago; up-and-coming linebacker Miles Graham, yet another soph and Bryce Lovett, a versatile offensive lineman who can play every position up front (he’s a soph, too), Florida has a promising mix of talent provided Napier can put it all together.
Almost everybody on this team was either recruited or brought in by Napier, so these are his guys. Now, it’s up to him to get the most out of them because there will be no second chance, at least not for Napier. He needs to get his system in place and the right people in the right spots.
While attention will be focused on Lagway and names like All-American center Jack Slaughter, the leader of a veteran offensive line and one of the best players in the country, others are ready to make a contribution,
most notably Lakeland high’s Cormani McClain. Coming out of Lakeland High School, McClain was not only regarded as the best defensive back in the country but, according to some recruiting services, the best player, period. He ended up at Colorado playing for Deion Sanders and almost immediately, the two clashed. McClain had all the talent in the world, but he never bought in to Sanders’ system.
So he left and ended up at Florida last year as a walk-on. Seeking to avoid what happened at Colorado, Napier put him on a short lease. McClain put his head down, walked the line and came to camp this year with a new attitude. He has impressed in early drills and could wind up being a very important piece of the Gator defense.
“Spring practice presents on opportunity to really teach not only conceptually what we do on offense, defense, and special teams but fundamentally it’s a chance to start from scratch,” Napier said before camp opened. “It creates an opportunity to develop leadership, new roles on the team.
“We certainly have high expectations here and in no way are we satisfied with where we’re at,” the Gator coach went on. You’re always sorting through the narratives,” Napier continued. “The big message for our team, the way I’ve phrased it, is we’re not worried about yesterday, we’re not worried about tomorrow.
“Our entire focus is on today. There’s always a lot of noise on the back end and there’s always a lot of hype on the front end. We’ve got to live in the middle where the work gets done,” Napier declared. “We have to remain process oriented and just see continued improvement, try to break up our year into phases, small chunks of time with objectives and goals and work our tails off one day at a time.”
That, Napier believes, will get the Gators where they want to go. It’s a big step up from last year, but Florida and Napier don’t have a choice. You’re either at the top or you’re not, and after three years of frustration, the Gators and Napier need to make a move. Napier has swung and missed three times, but he fouled the ball off last year. He can’t swing and miss again.
