1. Where is Josh Berry heading for 2024?
In six NASCAR Cup Series races as a Hendrick Motorsports substitute driver, Josh Berry has scored three top 10s with a best finish of second at Richmond Raceway in April.
He has quickly become a hot commodity in the garage area, and after Larry McReynolds reported that Berry had signed a Cup contract for 2024 in a SiriusXM interview, the rumors have been flying.
While there are plenty of rides up for grabs — including a potential JR Motorsports entry into Cup — the past few days have pointed to one ride in particular: Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 4 car.
On Monday, Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal reported that Berry had signed a deal with KHI Management, an agency owned by none other than Kevin Harvick.
With Harvick retiring at season’s end and Berry signing with KHI, the latest signs scream SHR.
But that’s all the definitive evidence available at the moment. And when Berry was asked about 2024 after Saturday’s (April 29) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, he didn’t budge on the topic.
2. With Richard Petty no longer involved, should Legacy Motor Club keep using the No. 43 in the Cup Series?
With the announcement earlier in the year that Richard Petty was no longer an owner of Legacy Motor Club, 2023 marks the first year since 1965 that a No. 43 car in Cup was unaffiliated with the Petty family or Petty Enterprises (while PE had been around since 1949, the ’50s and early ’60s saw unaffiliated teams use the No. 43 car for races on the West Coast).
The original Petty team ceased to exist after 2008, but Petty remained involved with the newly formed Richard Petty Motorsports in 2009 and successor Petty GMS Racing in 2022.
But after 75 years in the sport, the last remaining trace of Petty Enterprises has vanished. Should the No. 43 vanish with it?
There are only 110 numbers available (0-99 along with 00-09), and retiring a number would break precedent.
If numbers were retired, there are plenty of numbers that could be retired due to its accomplishments with a driver or team (Nos. 3, 11, 21, 24 and 48, to name a few). But all of those numbers — with the exception of the No. 11 — are currently in use with the teams that first made them famous; that is no longer the case with No. 43.
When Petty retired from driving after the 1992 season, PE switched to the No. 44…
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