In NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had many proteges. Be it his Xfinity Series star Justin Allgaier, who won the 2024 Xfinity Championship for him, or Connor Zilisch who shook the NASCAR community by winning his debut Xfinity race last season at Watkins Glen. And Junior has played a massive role in these drivers’ careers. Allgaier is in his 10th season with JRM. And through the ups and downs, Junior’s always stuck with him, finally leading to Allgaier’s first championship in his 7th attempt. Same with Zilisch, the man’s 18 and already running his first full Xfinity Season with JRM. And 5 races in, he’s also managed to get a win at COTA! These moments must feel satisfying for Junior, and he felt it again at the recent Vegas race.

Folks, it was the first intermediate track of the season, and we know those can be tricky. Each driver needs to pick the correct lanes and the best tire strategy. And nailing all that was an unexpected driver. A Wood Brothers Racing driver no less. Josh Berry is the latest pilot in the legendary #21 car and he drove it all the way to victory lane in Vegas. Bagging his first Cup Series race and the team’s 101st. The CARS Tour’s Late Model Stock Car division’s winningest driver gives all credit to Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his success.

How did Dale Junior find Josh Berry?

Now, Berry doesn’t come from money, and neither does he have a famous family name backing him. The cheapest way to race was simulators for him. DMP Online Racing to be specific. And that’s what he was doing in 2008 while simultaneously racing Legend Cars. This is when he met ‘June Bug’ (Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s nickname for Junior). It started with a brief conversation about how Berry wanted to race Late Models and within no time he was piloting a car for Junior Motorsports!

Recently Berry shared the story on the podcast, ‘Rubbin is Racing,’ he said, “I got into you know racing online and specifically what came became iRacing. And honestly, the biggest reason for that for me was it was a way to race and be competitive and it didn’t cost a lot of money. Like racing in a real car did right. So that was kind of where I got with that and ultimately I got really fortunate to uh you know meet Dale Jr. on there became a good friend of his… Ultimately he ended up saying hey man you want to what do you want to do? And I was like man I’d really like to just drive a late model… he [Dale Jr.] put together a test for me in his late model program.”

And Josh Berry surpassed all of Junior’s expectations. He became the all-time wins leader in CARS Tour overall and CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour. Berry to date has won 100 races for JRM. 95 in the Late Models and 5 in the Xfinity Series. He also became the 2020 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National Championship. And after so much success as a short-track racer, it looked like that’s all he’d be. But winning the 2020 title, made Dale Earnhardt Jr. confident enough to put Berry in the Xfinity Series and it started as a 12-race agreement. Berry was piloting JRM’s #8 car. This soon translated into a full season in 2022, and yet again Berry delivered, reaching the final 4 in Phoenix.

Then he got a few Cup starts in 2023 running his second full Xfinity Series season. Finally, Tony Stewart signed him for a full Cup season in 2024 with Stewart-Haas Racing. And Berry was as impressive as he could be with a declining team, racking up two top-5s and finishing runner-up to Carson Hocevar in the Rookie of the Year voting. Fast forward to 2025, SHR got disbanded and by June of 2024, he was already announced to pilot Wood Brothers Racing’s #21 car. After a slow rookie year, Berry has blossomed into a stellar sophomore, leading more laps in the #21 car in five races than WBR managed in the last two seasons combined! And Junior is loving it. He’s always been a big Josh Berry fan.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Josh Berry’s first Cup win!

No one picked Josh Berry as a potential winner for Sin City, except for maybe Dale Earnhardt Jr. He’s always believed in him. And now if you recall that last lap, Berry had a battle with Daniel Suarez before he took the lead with 20 to go. After that, it was just smooth sailing. However, Junior was biting his nails until the very moment Berry took the checkered flag. “When you get in those moments, like if you’re not doing it, like if you’re not out in the car, you’ll probably experience this someday, like I can’t even watch. I bet that there are a lot of people just like me in your world that were the same way,” Junior said on the Dale Jr. Download.

And now that Berry is a Cup Series winner, he hasn’t forgotten his mentor. The first call he made after the win was to Junior. Well, after all, everything Berry’s gotten is thanks to Junior. And Junior got emotional as Berry face-timed him from Sin City. Dale Jr sharing this moment, said, “Going to Victory Lane, having that genuine Victory Lane experience and I’m thankful to the Facetime call, that meant so much to me that with all the people you wanted to connect with in the moment, you reached out to me.”

Also, Berry kind of gave Dale Earnhardt Jr. a tribute with his victory celebration. Now, your first Cup win deserves all the possible burnouts. But Berry just got out of his car and sat on the hood, soaking in the moment. And when Junior asked about this on the Dale Jr Download podcast, Berry said, “A lot of what I did was from your celebration that night, right? Like I was, man, that’s what I wanna do. I mean, I’m not a big smokey burnout, you know, blow the tires out, the type of guy.” He was referring to how Junior celebrated after winning the 2014 Daytona 500, an emotional victory that came 10 years after he first conquered the ‘Great American Race’.

Anyway, 6 races in, Berry’s got his first win of the season. Let’s hope to see more from him as he has booked his spot in the 2025 playoffs. How do you think Berry will fare for the rest of the season? Can he rack up more wins in the #21? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.