(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

By Aaron Bearden

It’s been nearly half a decade since Tanner Berryhill last competed full-time on a NASCAR tour.

Thanks to an old connection and a fateful phone call, that will change in 2019. Berryhill is set to compete full-time for Obaika Racing in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Berryhill’s name made its way onto a NASCAR entry list for the first time in more than three years when he agreed to drive Obaika’s No. 97 Chevrolet in October’s inaugural Xfinity Series race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. It would be the Oklahoman’s first attempted start since he made a quiet Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in the 2015 Sprint Showdown at the same track.

The run came from an old connection – and a fateful phone call.

“In 2014, when I was running full-time in Xfinity my crew chief was Dan Stillman,” Berryhill told Motorsports Beat. “Some people haven’t put that dot together. But Dan went to work for Victor (Obaika), and he kind of opened the door when Victor was looking for drivers.

“Dan talked Victor into giving me a chance. Then Victor called me and we talked for a while. He seemed to like me, so he gave me a chance to drive at the Roval.”

The ride offered little chance at a drive to the front of the field. But it was a momentous opportunity for Berryhill – one he hadn’t seen in NASCAR for more than three years.

Not for lack of effort on his part, but due to the word that plagues so many in the sport.

Funding.

“I haven’t had any funding at all,” Berryhill said. “I mean zero. None. No family money. No sponsorship. Nothing.

“Anytime I got in a race car, it was by chance. Someone giving me an opportunity. I got to race some midgets, sprint cars, stuff like that. That stuff is so much different on cost versus stock cars, so I was able to raise some sponsorship for those races. But the stock car deal is just so expensive, and so difficult to do if you don’t have that person that believes in you.”

Berryhill comes from a dirt racing family. His uncle Aaron Berryhill once competed full-time with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, and his grandfather’s food services company, The Original Chili Bowl, served as the sponsor for the inaugural Chili Bowl Nationals – giving the prestigious dirt midget race a name it carries to this day.

But Berryhill wasn’t like the rest of his family. He preferred to race on asphalt.

“A lot of people think I grew up racing on dirt, but I didn’t,” he said. “I raced pavement – legends, bandoleros, late models, super trucks, ARCA, K&N. Pretty much anything Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney were driving, I was there with them. I was at the same races they were, doing the same thing they were doing. I was brought up the same way they were.

The majority of his family disliked the pavement move at first — Berryhill admitted “there was a little bit of hesitation to support my career in the beginning,” though they were “all for it” once he reached NASCAR — but his father Adrian Berryhill embraced the move. It was with Adrian’s Vision Racing team that Tanner ran full-time in the 2014 Xfinity Series season.

While there he made the connection with Stillman that’s ultimately brought him an avenue back to the sport – though it didn’t come without a scare.

Berryhill never got the chance to make that first start with the team at Charlotte. He lost brakes going into Turn 1 during qualifying, crashed the car and didn’t get an opportunity to return to the track. He feared the move would cost him an opportunity, but Obaika called back to put him in the team’s new Cup program heading into the penultimate race of the season at ISM Raceway.

” I thought (Obaika) would never call me again,” Berryhill admitted. “But he ended up calling me again and a few weeks later I made my Cup debut. It’s crazy. There’s no rhyme or reason why it happened other than a blessing, to be honest.”

Charlotte provided Berryhill’s first Cup race in 2015, but Phoenix saw his first start alongside the full series field. The race was a struggle, with the new driver and team coming home 31st after a late crash that played a role in the playoff cutoff battle.

The moment led to criticism of Berryhill’s addition to the field, given his relative lack of Cup experience and the importance of the race. But he didn’t let the harsh words faze him.

“They just don’t understand the situation – what I’ve been through and done to get to the point that I was at,” he said. “There are a lot of naysayers and people that want to be where you are. You can’t let that bother you, so it doesn’t really get to me. I know my ability behind the wheel of a race car, and I know the ability of the team. That’s all that matters to me.”

Berryhill returned with Obaika the following week to close out the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway, putting together a quiet 38th-place run.

He’s set to stay with the team for a full year in 2019, with goals of making the Daytona 500 and improving each week. Berryhill understands that it may prove to be a challenging run. “We’re a new team breaking into the highest level of motorsports in the United States, so it’s going to be difficult,” he said. “But I think the work we’re doing in the offseason is going to help us be successful in 2019 and the years to come.”

But the difficulty doesn’t matter, nor will any criticism sent his way.

For the first time in five seasons, Berryhill appears poised to run full-time on a NASCAR tour. Given all he’s been through in recent years, that alone is enough for him to be grateful.

“I raced full-time in the Xfinity Series and got that experience when I was a 20-year-old kid,” he said. “I’m 25 now, so going into the NASCAR season I’m honestly just excited to be back at the race track. It’s going to be so nice showing up to the race track every week, seeing all the fans.

“I’ve loved NASCAR since I was a little kid, so to be out there competing is super special to me. Since I had that time away from the sport, it’s humbled me. I have a new perspective on going to the race track.”