Josh Berry Reveals NASCAR Team Asked Him $3 Million for 2027 Cup Seat

Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry has exposed the broken NASCAR system that reward drivers that brings in money over talent.

Josh Berry Reveals NASCAR Team Asked Him $3 Million for 2027 Cup Seat

Josh Berry (Via @JoshBerry/Facebook)

Despite having one of the best years of his Cup career, Wood Brother Racing’s Josh Berry has found himself in a spot where he can’t wholeheartedly celebrate the strong runs. He has no Cup seat secured for the 2027 season, after it was announced that Jesse Love will replace the veteran next year in the No:21 Ford team.

Ahead of this weekends race at Richmond Raceway Berry talked about his struggle to find a new team with Joseph Srigley. He highlighted how they had some positive discussion with teams as well as some hopeless ones about the 2027 season. The most shocking one of them all was one side asking $3 million funding from him.

We’ve had conversations. We’ve had good ones. We’ve had bad ones. We’ve had ones that we thought had potential. We had ones that we sat down, and they asked for three million dollars, so it’s been a little bit of a challenge working through all of that.

Josh Berry said, in video shared by Joseph Srigley.

At the moment Josh Berry can’t do nothing but win his battles on Sunday and prove to the garage he still got the X-factor in him that inspired Wood Brothers to sign him couple of years ago despite him being on the older side compared to other stock car racing aspirants. He admitted that it is possibility that all his positive run won’t amount to nothing.

To be honest, I’m kind of to the point now where I can’t do much else other than just try to focus on Sundays and try to have days like we’ve had the last couple of weeks. Honestly, I feel like if we turn this deal around and run like we have the last two races and find ourselves in the top five and top 10 and nothing materializes.

Josh Berry added.
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Josh Berry blames the system for the challenges

Later in the same conversation, Berry highlighted how the stock car racing system of giving seats to drivers that brings in the bigger sponsorship over the better racers is something that has been hurting for years. It is the difficult side stock car racing business all the drivers have go through in all the divisions.

Josh Berry
Josh Berry (Via IMAGO)

I kind of feel it shows more about the system than it does about me. We’ll just work through that as it comes… The system is difficult. The business model is difficult for the Truck and O’Reilly Series and the Cup Series to a point, but it’s just difficult.

Josh Berry said.

He highlighted how he spent years in the lower divisions fighting for opportunities, despite having talent. The same bad fortune had now caught up with him in the top-tier, as he needs to find funding from sponsors to continue racing at the top.

This is not anything new. I spent years racing late models and fighting for opportunities. This has all been well documented, and now it’s kind of come back around the other way, unfortunately, just because of how this year has gone. It’s a challenge. I think that the funding is an important piece…

Josh Berry asserted.

The comments from the veteran racer exposes the major issue with the sport. The economics of stock car racing has changed as it no longer attracts millions of viewers as they used to and the sponsors are reluctant to spend money on racers that has limited star potential or visibility.

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