Josh Berry will drive the No. 8 for JR Motorsports in approximately 12 Xfinity races next season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced Thursday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
The 29-year-old Berry claimed the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series championship this past weekend, scoring 24 wins in 37 Late Model starts.
Berry will run in the first half of the 2021 Xfinity Series in the No. 8 car. Sam Mayer will run the second half of the season in that car after he turns 18. Mayer will move to a full-time role in the No. 8 Xfinity car in 2022.
Berry is a 10-year veteran of JRM’s Late Model program. He has seven career Xfinity starts. His last series start was in Oct. 2017 at Kansas Speedway. Berry has made five Xfinity starts for JR Motorsports, the last in 2016.
In a media session before the announcement, Earnhardt said of Berry: “At JR Motorsports, we’re always actively looking at opportunities to get Josh into the next level and race in our Xfinity cars more often. We’ve had some opportunities to get him in our Xfinity cars and those have really proven successful, so much so that I was really shocked we didn’t any more outside interest from corporate America to run more races, but we’re always looking at opportunities to get Josh in our cars.
“He’s a prime sort of up-and-comer that has put in a lot of work in the short track ranks to develop himself as a driver.”
Additional details will be announced later.