Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Josh Berry 'didn't do himself any favors' at Sonoma amid Stewart-Haas closure

Josh Berry knows that now is the time to impress after Stewart-Haas Racing announced it will shut down operations after the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.

As a result, Berry is set to be out of a job for 2025 and beyond. And with silly season already underway, a P36 at Gateway followed by a P32 at Sonoma this past Sunday was hardly what Berry needed. Dale Earnhardt Jr., a longtime advocate for Berry’s talent, said on the “Dale Jr. Download” this week that he “didn’t do himself any favors” by having a disappointing run at Sonoma.

“It was unfortunate because Josh — as I’ve been singing the praises of Josh for a long time and I’m a big fan of Josh,” Earnhardt said. “And he’s in a year where he doesn’t have all year. He and all these drivers that are trying to find jobs for next year… they don’t have the entire season because teams are trying to nail down in the next several months. We’re really halfway through the year — you want to be able to know who’s driving your racecars at least through maybe the end of August. This has to happen in a pretty relative short period of time and every race is a tryout or a job interview for all of these drivers.

“Josh didn’t do himself any favors there with that.”

Josh Berry involved in multicar pileup at Sonoma

Berry hardly had a car capable of competing for a win at Sonoma, running mid pack throughout the early stages of the race. During Stage 2, however, his day turned sideways. Coming out of Turn 10, Berry tried to block Erik Jones from passing him on the inside. The two made contact, Berry making slight contact with the wall and then sliding up the track in the corner of Turn 11. It caused a multicar pileup and Berry sustained enough damage that would later end his day at Sonoma.

“Our race was going OK, but after the incident there in [Turn] 11, the car just kind of drove funny and, ultimately, we couldn’t make it to the end,” Berry said.

Earnhardt provided his insight on the incident, saying Berry tried to “protect a part of the racetrack that’s probably not necessary to protect.”

“But looking at that situation, all those drivers are coming through Turn 10 and everybody’s trying to take advantage of each other. They’re two, three, four-wide,” Earnhardt said. “You got somebody off in the dirt on the outside of Turn 10 coming back onto the racetrack. Josh is pretty low for the entry to Turn 11, there’s a lane below him but that’s not really good racetrack. I think Erik Jones drives into that lane going to try to get to the inside of Josh and I would assume that part of the track has no rubber, it’s not been drove on, it’s dirty, it’s just not good. Josh went to protect a part of the racetrack that’s probably not necessary to protect.”

Berry slipped to 23rd in the points standings after Sonoma.