LOUDON, N.H. -- Although Josh Berry has been out of a NASCAR ride for 2027 over the last two months, he has been racing the last few weeks like he shouldn't be.

Berry brought Wood Brothers Racing's famed No. 21 Ford to a third-place finish in the Dollar Tree 301 after leading 73 of 301 laps in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. 

If you watched Sunday's race and didn't know Berry was out of a ride for 2027, you could've guessed it based on his driving style. If NASCAR had a driver of the day like Formula 1, Berry would be a clear choice for how his bold moves perfectly toed the line between distinction and disgrace with a high-wear tire that punished over-aggression.

Berry ultimately became the first driver to earn four consecutive top-10 finishes with Wood Brothers Racing since Morgan Shepherd in 1994.

To do this, he has raced against and beat NASCAR Cup Series champions and winners, who are series mainstays, on some of the most driver-dependent tracks on the circuit.

Yet, days like those still won't save his ride. Jesse Love is signed to take it over in 2027 while Berry has to navigate a tough free agent market.

"We’ve had conversations. We’ve had good ones, we’ve had bad ones, we’ve had ones that we thought had potential. We had ones that we sat down and they asked for three million dollars, so it’s been a little bit of a challenge working through all of that," Berry said Aug. 12 about finding a ride in 2027.

Despite becoming just the third driver to win and virtually make the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series postseason and becoming the first regular oval winner for Wood Brothers Racing since Ryan Blaney in 2017, far outperforming predecessor Harrison Burton's three years of statistics in just one season, Josh Berry was out of a ride relatively early on in 2026.

Berry's 11 finishes of 26th or worse in the first 14 races put him 32nd in points and out of Chase contention even just halfway through the regular season.

A new Chase format didn't give him a saving grace to win and get into the postseason but what hurt him worse was arguably his age.

At the start of the 2027 season, Berry will be 36 years old and 15 years older than Love. Wood Brothers Racing can take their time and use Penske's help to develop Love and a program around him, while Berry is more set in his ways as a driver.

Berry is a NASCAR Cup Series winner and a father who could appeal well to a team and its sponsors that are looking to find a stable driver while its next talent develops.

A team like Richard Childress Racing is looking to rebuild after unexpectedly losing their star driver, 41-year-old Kyle Busch. While talks have seemed to center on Austin Hill, who has been the driver for Busch's old team, rumors indicate those talks have stalled.

RCR partners, like Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Morgan & Morgan and FICO, each prominently featured Busch in their advertisements. While Berry isn't as marketable of a face as Busch, he is someone who could walk into a corporate boardroom and appeal to executives and get the word out about their brand, akin to Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman whose likeability allowed each of them to step away on their own terms.

Berry is also just one of 27 drivers in all of NASCAR who has won with the radically-different NextGen car that has been tough for young drivers to master and for some veterans to adapt to. He is valuable for any team looking to get better, with his status as a good measuring stick for a team and having valuable insight into a top team like Penske.

History has been kind to drivers who bow out of Cup and race in lower series. Justin Allgaier and Daniel Hemric continue to win races and have each even won a championship in the lower series after a Cup stint didn't pan out for them. 

Among the rides open for 2027 include Front Row Motorsports' No. 38 truck. As FRM general manager Jerry Freeze discussed on a podcast recently, they're looking for a driver who can get in the car and win immediately, can race on Sundays and can bring a little bit of funding but doesn't need to pay their entire way.

If Front Row doesn't mind having an older driver, Berry exactly who they are looking for.

Berry has also been rumored as a candidate for Peterson Racing Group's NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series team. 

Josh Berry not having a NASCAR ride would be an indictment of NASCAR's money-driven system that can shut out an accomplished driver like Berry and keep space for drivers who have far fewer accomplishments and worse statistics but more money than him.

"Honestly, I feel like if we turn this deal around and run like we have the last three races and find ourselves in the top five and top 10 and nothing materializes, I kind of feel it shows more about the system than it does about me. We’ll just work through that as it comes," Berry said Aug. 12.

Berry will find a ride, no matter what. Even if he goes back to mostly racing late models, like he did before getting his big break in 2021, he'll go home not with his tail between his legs -- but as a hero of a rags-to-riches story that has become increasingly rare in NASCAR.