With Kevin Harvick’s retirement, Tony Stewart was left with big shoes to fill at Stewart-Haas Racing. The three-time Cup Series champion decided to hire Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Xfinity Series driver Josh Berry. Junior and Berry have always had a healthy respect for one another and the former is a big admirer of the 33-year-old’s race craft. However, the 2-time Xfinity Series champion does not believe his former employee will be able to make much of an impact in SHR.

The 2024 Cup Series season will be Josh Berry’s first full-time season in NASCAR’s top division. However, the former JR Motorsports man is not short on experience. He made it to the championship race in the 2022 Xfinity Series and has multiple race wins in the competition. He has several accolades to his name and fans have already been looking forward to his full-time Cup debut.

Dale Earnhardt Jr picks Joe Gibbs’ star to have a better year than his ex-driver

While Josh Berry is an extremely skilled and experienced motorsports athlete, his former employer, Dale Earnhardt Jr, is not too confident about his first full-time Cup season. But that has nothing to do with Berry. Junior’s issue is with Stewart-Haas Racing. The 49-year-old simply does not believe that the team will be able to come up with a car that will be able to challenge for race victories.

In a recent episode of the Dale Jr Download podcast, the former Cup Series driver picked Ty Gibbs over Josh Berry to be the breakout star in the 2024 Cup Series. This may come as a shock to a lot of people as Junior knows how good a driver Berry is. However, the JRM owner perfectly explained the reason why he did not choose his former driver.

“I’m gonna say that next year’s breakout star, I’m gonna say that it’s Ty Gibbs. I don’t…I want to go with like a Zane Smith or you know, Josh Berry, John Hunter Nemechek but I just don’t know that the cars and the…Ty Gibbs is in a Gibbs car. Their stuff runs in the top 5 a lot and I think he’s just trying to get there,” Junior said after much pondering.

A driver can only be as good as the car they are in and if the 2023 season is anything to go by, Stewart-Haas Racing is nowhere near the heavyweights like Joe Gibbs Racing or Hendrick Motorsports. His pick, Ty Gibbs, on the other hand, has been an Xfinity Series champion and is in one of the strongest teams in the sport today.

Josh Berry will have a big responsibility on his shoulders when he joins SHR. Not only is he coming into a championship-winning Cup Series team, he is replacing one of the greatest of all time in Kevin Harvick and the #4 car. As far as Junior goes, that will bring its own set of challenges.

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Junior outlines the challenges of replacing Kevin Harvick

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The former Cup Series driver believes that Berry will struggle given that it will be his first season in the competition, but that’s not all. All eyes will be on the 33-year-old as he will be driving that #4 car, which fans are used to seeing some fantastic moments in thanks to Kevin Harvick.

“I’m a Josh Berry fan. Y’all know that I want that to go well. There will be some moments of struggle. There will be times when Josh Berry’s going, ‘Dude, do I have what it takes? Do I belong here? Do I have the fortitude to go forward?’ There will be some dark, dark moments in that first year. There are for every driver,” Junior said.

“You at least need to have those few bright pops where you go, ‘Oh shoot man. They had a great run today. Man, if they could do that regularly…That’s what you need to hear at least once or twice throughout the season for this #4 car,” the JRM owner added.

Will Josh Berry have a good first full-time season in the Cup Series? Or will it be a disaster for the 33-year-old? Let us know what you think.

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