“We Set Them Up to Fail”- Kevin Harvick’s Former Crew Chief Concedes NASCAR’s Tough Ask From Rookies

NASCAR as a sport is changing and upgrading itself constantly, whether it is with regards to the crew chief, the engineering side, the driver’s point of view, or from the manufacturer’s side. But at the end of the day, it’s on the drivers to make magic happen on the track. Sure, the seasoned pros might have an edge when it comes to adapting to new twists and turns, but it’s a whole other ballgame for the newbies. Kevin Harvick’s old crew chief, who’s now working with Josh Berry, spilled the beans on this in his latest chat with NASCAR.

Kevin Harvick’s old pit boss thinks more Top 10s will get them closer to victory

Let’s talk about the Bristol race for a bit. That race was a nail-biter, exactly what NASCAR fans have been itching for with these next-gen cars rolling out. The pros like Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr totally rocked it, but the rookies had a rough go.

Now, Rodney Childers, who’s steering the ship for Josh Berry these days, swears that what made Harvick a beast was his sheer confidence. And that is the only thing that’d help Josh Berry as well. You could see that play out in Richmond. Josh Berry didn’t start off hot, kicking off from 30th, but the guy powered through to almost snag second by the end of Stage 2.

Childers spilled the beans to NASCAR, admitting it’s a tough world for the new kids on the block. “The sport has changed a lot and it’s extremely hard on the rookies. I told somebody last weekend I feel like we set them up to fail and all in all honesty he’s [Josh Berry] done a great job for us. And we just got to keep growing every week and, you know, not getting that practice and not getting to go run on these road courses and testing and different things is really hard on these rookies,” Childers said.

Further talking about what can be done to improve the results for Josh Berry, Childers said, “Hopefully we can keep giving him good cars on the weekends and he can focus on the things that he can do better and not have to worry about whether we’re going to take wedge in or out or whatever after practice. So, we just kind of, we just got to keep putting them together you know like putting weekends together have nice smooth stops not make mistakes and just knock out some top 10 and the more you knock out those top 10 you know the more chances you’re going to have a win in a race.”

Josh Berry had quite the eventful evening at Richmond Raceway, from being in a car that could’ve won the race to some spicy exchanges off the track. He was cruising in the top five and top 10 for most of the race, but then a pit stop that dragged on for 16 seconds and a slip-up afterward made them lose some precious positions, leaving him to finish 11th. Not exactly what he was aiming for, but well, he climbed five spots up in the points race.

And probably that reason would be enough to say that he might be the next big thing when it comes to short-track racing.

Josh Berry might just be the next big thing in NASCAR short-track racing

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Josh Berry has a solid background in late-model stock car racing, which is why short tracks are kind of his thing, and so is Rodney Childers, who’s big on those tracks too. Berry’s not new to showing off what he can do on short tracks. After all, he nailed the qualifying race at Bristol by taking the second spot.

Stewart-Haas Racing was already eyeing Martinsville as their playground at the start of the season. If Berry and Childers have found their groove with short tracks, they might just rain on big NASCAR fishes like Hendrick Motorsports’ this weekend at Martinsville.

Read More: NASCAR Quest for Cup Series Parity Culminates at Richmond After Historic 3-Mile Finish

Even Berry himself is riding high on confidence from his performance at Richmond and is looking forward to Martinsville with a bunch of points in his pocket. In his own words after Richmond, “It was a solid night. We had a really good car and a really good practice. We lost a little track position and got stuck in the back half of the top 10, but, all in all, it was a really good night. We have a lot to be proud of. It was a good points night and we’ll go to Martinsville.”

Hearing that belief in his voice, do you think Josh Berry can really bounce back to claim a high spot in Martinsville? Let us know in the comments below!