The wait for 2024 is over for Josh Berry, Rodney Childers and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team.
It’s racing season again, but this year, there’s plenty of change for everyone involved in the success of the No. 4 Ford. Berry is driving full-time for a team that isn’t JR Motorsports for the first time since 2010. Childers is managing a NASCAR Cup Series team without Kevin Harvick at the wheel for the first time in a decade. Spotter Eddie D’Hondt is on the roof guiding a Cup driver who isn’t Chase Elliott for the first time since 2015.
Together, the new-look No. 4 team is ready to charge into the 2024 Cup season at full speed, starting with the 66th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Berry has been busy since the NASCAR Xfinity Series season concluded in November, ending a two-year stint as the driver of JR Motorsports’ No 8 Chevrolet, the same team he drove Late Model Stocks for in 2010. Those roots were on full display during the fall when he connected with Childers and Kevin Harvick, Inc., to get on track in the No. 62 Ford in an effort to build relationships.
“You know, it was a busy couple of weeks there for sure to go do all that,” Berry said. “But it was a lot of fun. And I think really what it did for us was just kind of expose ourselves to each other early on, and just kind of get a feel for each one of us and how we work and operate.”
Childers, on the brink of entering his 20th NASCAR Cup Series season atop the pit box as crew chief, has been chasing racing for much longer than those two decades. Hitting those short tracks all over again with Berry — Florence Motor Speedway in South Carolina and Hickory Motor Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park in North Carolina — was just the right way to head into the NASCAR offseason.
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“I think anything like that’s good. It was really more for fun than it was anything,” Childers said. “We both love Late Model Stock racing, and you know we were able to go and compete and sit on the front row every week and have a shot at winning every week. And I think just being around each other and communicating, knowing each other’s desires and how much we want to win, is a good thing.
“So it’s been easy peasy so far. You know, there’s gonna be ups and downs, of course, but our goals on the 4 team are no different than they’ve been the last 10 years. We still work as hard as we can every week and try to go win practice, win the pole, and win the race, so I don’t think that’ll ever change.”
Those goals may sound ambitious for Berry, a Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender at the top level of stock-car racing in the United States. But Berry has already impressed mightily, both in the Xfinity Series, where he became a force to be reckoned with in the last three years and in limited Cup Series appearances across two seasons. Last year, Berry made 10 Cup starts — five with Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 team subbing for an injured Chase Elliott, three with HMS’ No. 48 team filling in for an injured Alex Bowman and two with the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club team for a then-suspended Noah Gragson, who joins Berry at SHR as a teammate in 2024.
His best finish across those 10 substitute drives was a career-high second place at Richmond Raceway in the No. 9 Chevrolet, to go along with 10th-place runs with the same team at Phoenix Raceway and the No. 48 group at Dover Motor Speedway. Berry also won the NASCAR All-Star Open at North Wilkesboro Speedway to propel him into his first NASCAR All-Star Race.
It’s no wonder Childers believes “he can run good right off the bat.”
“I think he’s gonna surprise a lot of people,” Childers said. “I think our team will surprise a lot of people. You know, it’s all about just hitting the details, doing the details, working as hard as we can — out-working the competitors and being prepared more than everybody else. The same things that we’ve seen things that we’ve focused on for 10 years.”
Getting experience in 2023 meant seat time in the Next Gen car, a vehicle with sharp contrasts to what Berry had been used to in the Xfinity Series or even his two Cup starts in 2021 when the Gen 6 was still in use. Berry’s hesitant to say he’s confident entering 2024 with that seat time in his pocket, but he knows it doesn’t hurt, either.
“I know that this is going to be hard,” Berry said. “I mean, that’s what I learned, especially even more so last year, was how difficult Cup racing is and how good these guys are and how competitive it is. So I definitely got that experience under my belt and understanding that, which I think will definitely prove (beneficial). But I think going into this if I had not driven the Next Gen up to this point, with the lack of testing and everything, right, the first time that I get in the 4 car (was) for practice at The Clash, and then Daytona 500 qualifying once we get to Daytona.
“So if I hadn’t gotten to that point and been able to at least drive the Next Gen car and just put a little bit of knowledge and information kind of into the back of my mind, I think that my confidence would be much lower than it is, right? I think just having that experience and having a couple of good results out of that opportunity definitely eased my mind a little bit going into this transition.”
That transition, by the way, was hardly smooth. The 33-year-old had to navigate giving his full attention to the full-time Xfinity Series job he worked a decade to earn but also had to dovetail subbing at Hendrick Motorsports into his first half of the year. Not to mention his fast track to the Cup Series as a full-time driver was being negotiated with Stewart-Haas Racing, one of the most successful teams in the sport since 2014.
“I mean, it was definitely unique, right? I don’t know how really else to explain it,” Berry said. “I think that with everything that happened the first few months of the season, right, with Chase’s injury and then Alex’s injury, I mean, we were just taking it one day at a time. And I think that, obviously, trying to navigate through the Xfinity Series season as well, I think it was definitely a lot at times. I feel like, overall, I felt like I handled it well. I don’t really know, thinking back on it, what I would do different necessarily.”
Ultimately, Berry, Childers and the whole of SHR are eager to look forward to what’s ahead rather than dwelling on their pasts — recent or long-standing. Stewart-Haas Racing has won three Cup races since the introduction of the Next Gen car in the 2022 season — two with the now-retired Harvick and one with Chase Briscoe, driver of the team’s No. 14 Ford. New this year alongside Berry is the sophomore Gragson, a former teammate of Berry’s at JR Motorsports, while Ryan Preece is back in the No. 41 Ford for a second season, his fifth full-time.
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Childers watched Berry’s 2023 Cup starts with a keen eye, hoping the Tennessean Late-Model-Stock-star-turned-NASCAR-up-and-comer would indeed be the next driver of the No. 4 Ford that Harvick helped Childers bring to NASCAR prominence. He was impressed then and is happy with the work ethic Berry has shown as the 2024 season nears.
“From working out and spending hours and hours and hours at the shop and asking questions and learning every little bit and piece, he’s been on top of it and worked really hard and been in a lot of meetings with us,” Childers said. “Just figuring it all out. And last year, I was really surprised when he ran those few races that he was even able to come down pit road and stop the Next Gen car in the pit box and do all those things because all of it’s completely different than having to do it in an Xfinity car. So I told him, you know, out of what I saw last year, that’s what impressed me the most was just being able to pit the car because it took Kevin six months to figure it out after we went to the Next Gen car.”
Berry finds himself invigorated by the atmosphere that permeates the Kannapolis, North Carolina facility, one steeped in a passion for racing that stems from co-owner Tony Stewart down the chain through drivers and crewmen alike. At the shop to have his seat insert molded, Berry realized the man working on it was former ARCA Menards Series driver Chad Blount. David Hyder, winner of over 100 Late Model Stock races during his driver career, leads SHR’s test team.
“David Hyder’s a legendary Late Model Stock guy, right?” Berry said, his face beaming as he mentioned the name. “So me and him are sitting there talking about winning Martinsville. And that just makes it really cool. And it’s really, I mean, from the top to the bottom, I mean, that’s what it is. It’s a bunch of racers. It’s a laid-back atmosphere. And I think that it’s been a pleasure to really be around and experience that. And I think that just makes it a great fit for me.
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“Obviously, to step into the opportunity with the 4 car and with Rodney — you know, look: I’m 33 years old. I have my ways of doing things as a race car driver. If I had a pick of any crew chief in the Cup garage, I’m picking Rodney. Every time. Right? Just because he’s a Late Model Stock guy like me, you know, short-track racer, just down-to-earth type (of) person that I know that I can communicate with. And obviously, his success speaks for itself. So I think for me, it’s just been a no-brainer, really. I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity and to work into this going into the season.”
The calendar year didn’t start exactly as the team planned, missing the main exhibition at The Clash while the other three SHR cars advanced. Their hope is that will be just a blip on the radar as the season progresses.
“I think the biggest thing is just seeing where we are as a team and getting all four cars working together better and on the same page,” Childers said. “We’ve really focused on that and changed what we look like and how we want to race and how we want to communicate, and everybody’s on board. And that’s pretty special.”