by Reid Scearce
NASCAR is already in year five of the Next Gen car, and for Wood Brothers Racing, the new era has been a nightmare. With a first-tier technical alliance with Team Penske, the single-car No. 21 team was initially expected to contend for a playoff spot every season. However, the longest-running team in the NASCAR Cup Series has become a prominent anomaly, one of the few established organizations in the garage to suffer an objective, sustained regression under the Next Gen platform.
To contextualize the frustrations of many, it’s important to examine the team’s performance over the last few years of the previous Gen-6 era. Between 2016 and 2021, the No. 21 team excelled at consistency and was moderately competitive. Following a playoff-bound, race-winning tenure with Ryan Blaney, the team maintained a remarkably high floor with veteran Paul Menard and, subsequently, Matt DiBenedetto. In 2020 and 2021, DiBenedetto secured consecutive 13th-place finishes in the final points standings. During those two years, he’d record 11 top fives and 20 top tens. Wood Brothers always had a knack for being in playoff contention, and more often than not, was able to display a level of execution and weekly speed that made them a respectable, reliable mid-pack force every weekend.
With Sponsorship Concerns, Matt DiBenedetto Leaves WBR
Wood Brothers’ downward trajectory began in 2022, coinciding with the Next Gen car’s debut, the spec-car chassis, and the release of Matt DiBenedetto. Despite a playoff berth in 2021, Wood Brothers Racing would seek a fresh start at the driver position after DiBenedetto’s off-track controversies made him a sponsorship concern. The team would instead call up 21-year-old Harrison Burton, son of former NASCAR Cup Series star Jeff Burton, to pilot the iconic No. 21 Ford Mustang.
Harrison Burton
Burton was expected to develop steadily alongside the new car, and while expectations weren’t super high, there were high hopes for Burton based on his moderate success in the Xfinity Series. Unfortunately, the pairing instead exposed the team’s severe performance deficits. The No. 21 team routinely lacked the speed and execution of its Penske counterparts in an era of NASCAR where competition between teams was as close as it had ever been. The finishes over Burton’s three-year tenure lacked competitiveness in every shape and form.
| Year | Avg. Finish | Top Five | Top Ten | Top 20 |
| 2022 | 22.78 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| 2023 | 24.67 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| 2025 | 25.72 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
Average finishes consistently catered toward the mid-20s, while Team Penske would go on to win three consecutive Cup Series championships. Leadership would inform Burton mid-season in 2024 that he would not be retained.
Stunning Victory for Burton
In August 2024, Burton scored a stunning, emotional upset victory in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. The win secured Wood Brothers Racing its landmark 100th Cup Series win and a miraculous playoff berth. The win, however, was highly polarizing, as drivers and fans were frustrated that a team sitting 34th in points earned a playoff spot by winning the final race of the regular season at a superspeedway over someone they felt was more deserving. Nonetheless, the post-season appearance went about as many expected, and Burton was eliminated immediately in the Round of 16. After his departure, Burton dropped back to the Xfinity Series for 2025, where he rehabilitated his career by guiding a modest AM Racing team to the 2025 Xfinity Series playoffs, ultimately finishing 12th in the final standings.
Josh Berry
To replace him for 2025, the Wood Brothers hired proven short-track specialist Josh Berry, who had lost his ride during Stewart-Haas Racing’s inevitable collapse. The pairing enjoyed an immediate honeymoon phase, and in just their fifth start together in March 2025, Berry drove the No. 21 to victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, securing a playoff spot just weeks into his tenure.
The early optimism was short-lived. The team peaked too soon, and after Berry’s win at Las Vegas, Wood Brothers had an incredibly brutal June and July stretch, seeing them struggle week after week. By the time the 2025 playoffs kicked off, the No. 21 team had completely lost its steam. Berry would register the worst playoff run in NASCAR history by finishing dead last in every single Round of 16 race due to crashes at Darlington and Gateway and suffering a mechanical failure at Bristol. He’d finish the season last among playoff drivers.
While statistically, the 2025 season with Josh Berry was by far Wood Brothers’ strongest season since the Next Gen car’s debut, the hangover of last season’s collapse extended directly into this year’s 2026 season. Aside from a ninth-place finish in the Daytona 500 and a tenth-place finish at Martinsville, the No. 21 car has once again become a backmarker, reminiscent of Harrison Burton’s time in the seat. Through the first 19 races of 2026, Berry has finished outside the top 25 in 15 races, including four DNFs, and currently sits 31st in the championship standings.
| Wins | Average Finish | Top Five | Top Ten | ||
| Through 19 Races in 2025 | 1 | 21.68 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Through 19 Races in 2026 | 0 | 27.05 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
The poor performance once again initiated the organization’s hand. One month ago today, Berry released a video statement that revealed Wood Brothers Racing had opted not to exercise the option on his contract, effectively booting him at season’s end. Exactly one week later, on June 17, 2026, Wood Brothers announced that the highly regarded 21-year-old Jesse Love is taking over the No. 21 Ford Mustang beginning in 2027. Love carries a record of elite development, having won the 2023 ARCA Menards Series championship as well as the 2025 Xfinity Series title for Richard Childress Racing. Many speculate that even with elite potential behind the wheel, the results won’t improve much, with some suggesting it is simply a strategic move for Love to position himself for another more competitive seat with Ford in the future.
Wood Brothers Racing
When a marquee name in the sport like Wood Brothers Racing fails to deliver results, the knee-jerk reaction from outsiders is to blame the drivers inside the cockpit. An unbiased review of the bigger picture, however, tells a different story. Harrison Burton came into the Cup Series as a respectable multi-win Xfinity Series driver, and Josh Berry was an elite short-track racer who had already proven himself by winning multiple races for JR Motorsports before putting together a solid rookie season with Stewart-Haas Racing. Neither was necessarily seen as a generational talent, but both were generally regarded as highly capable drivers. Despite that, both drivers eventually found themselves at the back of the field. The issue, instead, is likely performance parity.
Because the vehicle is composed of single-source, spec components, technical parity across the field is at an all-time high. Consequently, the tiniest competitive advantages are found in multi-million dollar simulation programs, data processing, and other expensive technology in order to get even a fraction of a second advantage. Although Wood Brothers Racing benefits from its close technical alliance with Team Penske, the No. 21 team still operates as the fourth car within Penske’s overall structure. While their satellite team status means they have access to more resources than most other independent teams do, it also means the team’s resources and development are naturally secondary to Penske’s three championship-contending entries. In an era where each team is bleeding money to get an edge, a lesser setup can leave a capable driver in equipment that simply isn’t fast enough to consistently compete for good finishes.
The Big Question?
By luring Love away from Chevrolet, Wood Brothers Racing and Ford Performance may be looking to capitalize on his upside. Nevertheless, as the Next Gen era continues, the real question is whether another change behind the wheel will help a team that simply hasn’t adapted to the modern game?
