Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Wood Brothers Racing's Josh Berry, who this week will embark on his first appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. This interview has been edited and condensed, but a full version is available on the 12 Questions Podcast.
1. What was one of the first autographs you got as a kid, and what do you remember about that moment?
One memory I have is going to the Nashville Superspeedway for an IndyCar race. We went to several races there -- Busch Series, Trucks -- but I remember the IndyCar race because they opened the garage area afterward.
We walked down there, and for some reason Sam Hornish sticks out. He was driving the yellow Pennzoil IndyCar, and I feel like he signed the hat of his that I had.
2. What is the most miserable you've ever been inside of a race car?
Texas, 2021. It was a doubleheader with Trucks and Xfinity. I didn't have an Xfinity ride lined up yet for 2022, so I ran the Rackley W.A.R. truck to take that opportunity.
It was like 105 degrees that day -- it was brutal. But I didn't want to pass up the opportunity because I didn't really have anything lined up, and that could be an opportunity for me if JR Motorsports (his team at the time) didn't work out. The truck just had a fan in it, I didn't have a cool shirt. I was pretty hot after the truck race, and then I had to run the Xfinity race.
I remember getting out afterward, going to the bathroom in one of the porta-johns, and I thought I was going down after that. It was so hot.
3. Outside of racing, what is your most recent memory of something you got way too competitive about?
Probably playing games with my 5-year-old. Whether it's tic-tac-toe or the matching game, kids are killer at the matching game. So that can be frustrating. If she's locked in and paying attention, she will take me down.
If she is really paying attention, she'll beat me every time. The only time I can keep it close is if she starts getting distracted by stuff. She's way good and I've seen a lot of kids like that. It must be something with their brains at that age.
4. What do people get wrong about you?
I feel like people view me as this chill, happy-to-be-here kind of guy because of my story. But as a competitor, I'm super competitive, super motivated, and have high expectations for myself and my team.
I think back to the short-track days -- if you asked all those guys we raced against for so long, they'd tell you how competitive we were and how bad we wanted to win. That's a big reason for the success we had.
People get enamored with my story -- that I short-track raced for so long and finally got an opportunity -- and they're like, "Oh, isn't it so great to be here? You made it. You're in the Cup Series now." But I don't view it as "I'm just happy to be here." I want to be up front. I want to be competitive.
5. What kind of Uber passenger are you, and how much do you care about your Uber rating?
I don't use Uber a whole lot, but I try to be respectful of those guys. If they talk to me, I'll talk to them. I probably wouldn't be one to start the conversation.
The last time I took an Uber was around Chicago when I flew in. We rode for a while and eventually the guy asked what I was doing in town. Then he started asking about the races. I just try to be respectful -- they're doing a job, getting us from point A to point B.
When people ask you questions about being there for the race, do you try to be more general about it?
Usually I'll be like, "Yeah, I'm here for the race" and then it's like, "Oh, what do you do?" and that's when you're like, "Yeah, well, I drive ..." and they're like, "What?!"
6. I'm asking each person a wild-card question. There was a long road to get to the Cup Series and to the point you've finally won a Cup race. What's the biggest difference between what you thought being in the Cup Series would be like and the reality now that you're living it?
To be honest, it's way harder than people realize. When I was racing Late Models and winning all kinds of races, you'd see guys come through the ranks -- maybe they didn't even have that much success, but they had funding and opportunities. They'd win a Truck race or whatever. And all of us at that level thought, "We could do that if we had the opportunity."
But living it, you realize just how good everyone is in the Cup Series and how hard it is to be competitive -- and how much is outside of your control. When I was Late Model racing, I worked on my car every day. We had a close-knit group making decisions on setup and tracks.
Now you get to the Cup Series and there's so much outside of your control. You can have the best car and still have a bad pit stop or bad restart. I knew it would be hard, but it's amazing how good these teams and drivers are.
7. This is my 16th year doing these 12 Questions interviews, so I'm bringing back an old question each week. What is your middle-finger policy on the racetrack?
I've done it, I'm sure, but not very often -- especially anymore. I've grown away from it. You see people do it all the time, but it just doesn't do a lot for me.
The funniest thing I've ever seen was Kyle Busch in an Xfinity race. Someone around me spun somebody out or ran somebody into the wall, and Kyle pulled up next to them, stuck his arm out and gave them a thumbs down. I thought that was hilarious. Like, "that was a bad move."
It doesn't bother me if someone gives me the bird. It doesn't set me off. I just don't really pay attention to it. Some people throw their hands out all the time, over anything. On these restarts, all kinds of stuff can happen. So I try to keep my hands in the car.
8. Other than one of your teammates, name a driver you'd be one of the first to congratulate in victory lane if they won a race.
Definitely Ryan Preece. We have similar backgrounds and stories, and we spent a lot of time together last year (at Stewart-Haas Racing). It was a tough situation for both of us to navigate, and I feel like we both learned from each other.
I'll be right there when he finally wins a race -- it's coming sooner or later.
9. How much do you use AI technology in your life or work?
A little bit. I started trying ChatGPT a month or two ago. The most recent time was when we were filling out paperwork for my daughter's kindergarten. One of the questions was, "What are two goals for your daughter this year?" We were blanking.
ChatGPT gave us answers, and one of them was "learning to manage your emotions." We were like, "Oh my gosh, that's perfect! That's exactly what we need." It gave us some good answers for that.
10. What is a time in your life that was really challenging, but you're proud of the way you responded?
I don't really talk about this a whole lot, but I lost my mother unexpectedly when I was 12 years old. For lack of a better term, I just woke up to it -- that traumatic of an experience.
I had to grow up so fast. My dad was working, so I was by myself a lot. I had to take care of myself -- do my own laundry, cook, manage school. It would have been easy to go down the wrong path, but I'm proud of how we made it through that.
You never recover from it and it never changes. I hate to say it makes you a better person, because that's still a loss. But it puts tough days at the racetrack in perspective, and I'm thankful for that.
I'm always struck by people who have suffered a loss when they're young and were able to avoid going down a bad path.
Yeah, it would be so easy to go down that path. One thing for sure was racing. We had to take a break from racing for a little bit, but once I got back racing, I was racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds at the time and I had a little four-cylinder car and eventually a Legend car. Being able to go out in the garage and work on my race car helped me keep myself out of trouble. You never know how all of that is going to go down.
11. What needs to happen in NASCAR to take the sport to the next level of popularity?
That's a hard question to answer. Everyone has different opinions. The biggest thing is we need to continue making the cars cool and fast, and make the experience at the racetrack really fun. Younger generations aren't as interested in cars anymore -- people view cars as something to get from Point A to Point B, not having project cars and stuff like that.
The cooler we can make it, the more of a spectacle race weekends can be -- where you walk up to the cars and say, "Wow," or see how fast they are or how great the racing is -- that's the biggest thing, in my eyes.
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. Austin Cindric's question for you was: What TV show character would your loved ones say you most embody?
My daughter would probably say Bluey's dad (Bandit). That show's on all the time. Just trying to balance being patient with them but still getting frustrated at times -- it happens to all of us.
The next interview is with Richard Petty. Do you have a question I can ask him?
What is your favorite moment racing the Wood Brothers over the years?