Josh Berry reveals awesome gesture from Dale Earnhardt Jr. that led to their friendship

Josh Berry didn’t have a straight shot to the NASCAR Cup Series, but his unique friendship with Dale Earnhardt Jr. helped him cultivate one.

Joining Kevin Harvick on the latest episode of Harvick’s Happy Hour, Berry told the story about how an awesome gesture from Earnhardt Jr. helped him get onto the track, and hone his skill behind the wheel, even if he didn’t exactly have the means to get into a car.

“I was playing iRacing a lot. That was when it was becoming more popular. And, to me, that was a great way to race, and it didn’t cost a lot of money. You’re racing real people on there. Like, it’s real competition. I had success doing that, and enjoyed it. I got to know Dale on there, just kind of as friends. He was racing on there too, at the time. Got to be friends with him. They had a couple of leagues and stuff that they were doing on there,” Berry explained. “I remember racing in his league a couple of times, and we just struck up a friendship.

“I can’t remember exactly how it all started, but I know Dale was asking me about my past, my history, what I raced and what I did, and I remember sending him some videos of me racing all of this stuff, and he was like, ‘What do you want to do?’ I was like, ‘You know man, I’d just love to race a late-model or something one time,’ because at that time, there was no plan or path for me to race anything other than what I was doing. I really couldn’t even afford what we were doing there.”

Evidently, Berry showed Earnhardt Jr. enough through iRacing and his past accomplishments for the legendary Cup Series wheelman to put him into his late-model, and that’s how this crazy journey started for Berry.

“He asked me if I was interested in testing his late-model at Motor Mile, and of course I was like, ‘Holy s—, yeah.’ So, came out, met with them, and then we went to a test, I want to say it was like, January, February, this was 2010, at Motor Mile, with those guys,” Berry added. “The test went good. You know, I ran pretty good, and then he said, ‘Alright, well you can run the first two races, and then we’ll see from there.’ So, I was still living in Tennessee at the time, we’re driving back and forth. Went, ran the first few races and Motor Mile that year, they went fairly decent.

“I can’t remember exactly where I finished, I think just outside the top ten in the first one, and maybe inside the top ten in the second one. There was about 30 cars, I think. After that, he was like, ‘Hey, we’ll figure out a plan, we’ll figure out something.’ So, I went back to Tennessee for a couple months, and then he eventually, they offered me a job at JR Motorsports.”

Josh Berry recognizes he owes Dale Earnhardt Jr. a ton, but that doesn’t diminish the skill he has behind the wheel. It’s a fascinating journey to the Cup Series, and one that Kevin Harvick realizes doesn’t happen for everyone interested in NASCAR, that’s for sure.