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Stewart-Haas Racing announced Wednesday that the team has hired Josh Berry to move to the NASCAR Cup Series as the new driver of the No. 4 Ford beginning in 2024. Berry will take over for Kevin Harvick, who is retiring at the end of the 2023 season.

Berry will be paired with crew chief Rodney Childers, whose resume includes 40 Cup Series wins and the 2014 Cup Series championship. The 32-year old from Hendersonville, Tenn. moves to Stewart-Haas Racing after many years with JR Motorsports, where he worked in various capacities for many years before finally getting his shot to race regularly in the Xfinity Series beginning in 2021. Berry has since earned five career Xfinity Series wins and was part of last year's Championship 4, finishing fourth in the final standings.

Berry has also made 10 Cup Series starts as a substitute driver, including eight this season filling in for Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman at Hendrick Motorsports. Berry's best Cup finish came earlier this year at Richmond when he finished second.

"I can't imagine a better opportunity for me – to get in a car that's been as successful and iconic as the No. 4," Berry said in a press release. "Kevin is a future NASCAR Hall of Famer, and it's going to be a challenge trying to come after someone so successful. But I know I'm going to have an amazing group of people around me, led by Rodney Childers, to where we can hit the ground running."

In an interview with CBS Sports last month, Berry had shared that his goal for 2023 was to perform at a level that could potentially put him in a Cup Series car in 2024. His hire by Stewart-Haas Racing now fulfills that objective and completes a long and steady rise that marks a triumph for short track racers in the Southeast.

Before being given a chance to showcase his talent in the Xfinity Series, Berry's career trajectory had seemingly been to compete regionally in late model racing, a path which led to him winning the NASCAR Weekly Series championship in 2020. Berry has since become the first Weekly Series national champion to race regularly in the Cup Series since fellow Middle Tennessee native Mike Alexander, who made 74 Cup starts between 1980 and 1990.

The announcement of Berry's hire continues a week of changes for Stewart-Haas Racing, which has underperformed in 2023 with the exception of Harvick's No. 4 team. After Chase Briscoe's No. 14 team was recently hit with one of the largest penalties in NASCAR history for using counterfeit parts, the team announced Tuesday that Richard Boswell would take over as crew chief for Briscoe starting this weekend at Nashville.