MOORESVILLE, N.C. As his second NASCAR Cup Series season kicks off this weekend at Bowman Gray Stadium, Josh Berry finds himself in a new situation.

The former NASCAR Weekly Series national champion, who drove for Stewart-Haas Racing last season, moves to Wood Brothers Racing after SHR closed at the end of last year.

Berry is thankful to be where he is, driving for a team celebrating its 75th anniversary in NASCAR racing. The Wood Brothers operation also has an alliance with Team Penske, which fields cars for Cup Series champions Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, along with a third effort for Austin Cindric.

Im obviously extremely thankful for that. Last year was a challenge, I think, from start to finish with everything going on, Berry said. A lot of emotions over the course of the year and different stages of that, but, all in all, Im proud that I did a good enough job to find myself in this opportunity and to go race for the Wood Brothers with the history theyve had and the tradition, and obviously the alliance with Team Penske. I feel like this is a great opportunity for me.

Theyre a family run organization, Berry continued. I think its a great fit for me and just the path that Ive taken here through the grassroots level and the things that have had to happen to get me here, I feel like Im in a great place and Ive really enjoyed working with them and getting to know everybody there, and fitting into the structure of everything that is the Wood Brothers and Team Penske and being able to rely on a couple Cup champions as teammates is going to be a big help for me as well.

Berry, who spent many years driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.s late model team, understands the history of the Wood Brothers.

I drove for a lot of great people and to add the Wood Brothers to the list is really special, Berry said. When you look at my career path at Junior Motorsports and then Stewart-Haas, but Ive spent some time filling roles here and there at Hendrick and its really cool the list of guys and teams that Ive gotten to drive for.

Its just a really big honor to get to do this and embark on their 75th season all with Ford Motor Co., and the success theyve had. We want to add to that tradition. Thats the goal. Thats why Im here. We want to come out and we want to run well and hopefully add to the list of 100 wins.

Berry said hes already seen the benefits of the alliance with Team Penske and believes his No. 21 Ford team led by Miles Stanley will benefit from that relationship.

The expectation is to run like their other three race cars and thats the fact of the matter, he said. Im ready to take on that and I think we all are Miles is and everybody on the 21 team is ready to get back up there and run up front and compete for wins and thats what were here to do.

Despite his history as a short-track racer, Berry has never raced at the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium. He expects Sundays Clash to be a chaotic race.

Its gonna be tight quarters racing. The track is narrow. Its shorter than a lot of the race tracks that we go to with the Cup cars, Berry explained. The biggest thing, like anywhere, is youve got to be fast. Thats the biggest thing. You need to have good track position. You need to qualify well and have a good heat race, that way you can get up front.

The race is gonna be chaotic in the middle of the field without a doubt, Berry noted. The best way to avoid that is to be fast enough to stay out of it, and I feel like this is gonna remind me a lot of the Valleystar 300 at Martinsville. There was a lot of those races where we would go and there would be eight-some-odd cars and heat races and thats one of the toughest short track races to win.

I think this kind of format reminds me a little bit of that. I guess with it being closer to home and a more traditional short track, it kind of reminds me of that and the biggest thing that we can do is just go out there and be fast and try to stay in front of the trouble and execute the best race we can. Although it might look different, thats what a lot of these races are and a lot of short track races are across the country.