Bilicki is Back - NASCAR 2026 Preview, Engineering in Racing + More

Introduction

Becca: We haven’t seen him in a few
years. His life has changed at a personal level — he talks about his family and
how that’s grown. As he’s growing personally and professionally, his approach
to racing has changed. We talked a lot this time about the different teams and
the engineering side of the cars. I think the longer he does it, the more
perspective he gets. The focus on engineering and how that’s really what’s
pushing certain teams ahead — I think it’s safe to say that’s a shift from the
historic art of racing.

Adam: Like our business as well,
things are becoming more and more technical, and that’s the same in racing.
He’s had the perspective of racing for small teams, medium teams, large teams.
Just learning about what’s fundamentally the same and what’s different with
factory simulators versus standard iRacing simulators. It’ll be cool to see him
this season running every week.

The Daytona 500 Fire Suit & a Full Season Ahead

Adam: That’s a special suit. That’s
still my only Daytona 500 to this day.

Josh: I’m confident it’ll be my last.
But it’s my first, so that was a cool experience. It was a different era with
the COVID era. Unfortunately, you guys couldn’t be in the pits with us. It was
a unique, kind of odd experience, but it was the Daytona 500. There was a huge
rain delay. My mom and my wife, she was my girlfriend at the time, sat in a
suite that NASCAR gave us for like eight or nine hours of a delay. That was my
last full-time season in one specific series — the first race of my only
full-time Cup season.

Josh: Since then, I still consider
that I’ve been full-time in different series. This year I still ran almost 50
races across five different types of racing categories — all three series of
NASCAR, the sports car program, dirt racing, the Chili Bowl. I pieced together
a full-time season, raced almost every single weekend. But I wasn’t full-time
in any one series. This year, to be full-time and running all 33 races, it’ll
be pretty cool. The last time I ran full-time in one specific series was 2021
with Wisconsin Lighting Lab on the car.

2024 Season Recap: Xfinity, Trucks & the Porsche Championship

Adam: So you ran two truck races this
year?

Josh: Two truck races, I think 21–22
Xfinity races, and then a handful of Cup races — five to seven. And then about
15–16 total WRL races in the Porsche, which we won the championship. We won
almost every race we entered. At COTA, we had a great battle for an hour and a
half against Billy Johnson, who’s an ex-factory Ford driver. It was full-on
NASCAR. They called themselves a no-contact series, but he was playing some
games, I was playing some games, and I kind of had to scoot him out of the way
to win the race.

Adam: How many classes are in that
series?

Josh: Four or five classes. Prototype
class, then GTO which we ran — a lot of GT4-style cars and some tube-frame
chassis cars. RCR had a car there the last couple of years at COTA. We brought
the Porsche Cup car, which we actually had to de-tune to fit the series by
about 100 horsepower. It was not easy. The car owner spent six digits to
de-tune the car. Porsche basically said, we don’t want you de-tuning this car,
so we’re not giving you any help. We had to get really creative — open up the
computer, add a lot of weight. Then there’s GP1, GP2 classes. GTO and GTU have
basically become pro classes. If you want to race for the win, you almost need
a pro driver, an IMSA-level strategist, and your pit stops need to be on par.

WRL, Grassroots Racing & Building a Car

Adam: I’d mentioned we’re kicking
around building a car for that series. What class would you recommend?

Josh: I think GP1. It’s right below
GTO. GP1 is a little more production car that you buy from the factory and turn
into a race car. The series kind of started as a grassroots-type endurance
series. GP1 and GP2 are more like what the series was based off of — your
grassroots racers showing up without a fancy full-blown rig. Ford just
announced a pretty decent prize pool for WRL.

Josh: I’d place WRL at the top of the
endurance series list right now. You’ve got Champ Car, which used to be Chump
Car — that’s become a little more serious. Then you’ve got Lemons, which is
pretty much just very goofy. If you’re looking to be competitive and serious
about your racing, I’d stay away from Lemons. Next year, interestingly enough,
one of the team owners in WRL wanted to buy WRL and they said no. So they came
out with their own series called Zenith Racing. They have a deal with IMSA
where if you win, you get a scholarship towards IMSA. That might dilute some of
the entries to WRL.

Full-Time in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series

Adam: What does NASCAR look like for
you next year?

Josh: I’ll be full-time in the Xfinity
Series, which is now the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. It’s going to take
a little bit to get used to — just like when they changed the name before,
we’ve been calling it the Xfinity car for years. I’ll be full-time in the
number 07. I’m putting all my eggs in one basket. I’m going to tune down my
sports car and dirt schedule and really try to focus on one series. I’d love to
race the IMSA race at Road America, which is actually an off weekend for me in
NASCAR.

Ovals, Dirt & Overcoming Intimidation

Adam: How’s your perspective changed
on circle tracks versus road racing?

Josh: I have a road racing background.
I’ll be at about 250 NASCAR starts, which is very cool and something I never
really expected. Over 100 NASCAR Cup Series starts, well over 100 in the
Xfinity Series. Ovals were always really intimidating. Over the last few years,
I’ve been racing more on dirt, and that’s enjoyable. I’m still learning, and it
actually translates quite well to ovals. What I always struggled with was
driving a car that’s a little bit loose on corner entry on an oval, especially
the bigger, faster tracks. Michigan, some of the mile-and-a-halfs — you’re at
190 going into turn one.

Josh: Some of the dirt races I’ve been
running, from the Chili Bowl to the sprint car, have helped with that. The
sprint car, you’ve got to drive the car really hard. It’s an uneasy,
uncomfortable feeling, and you’ve got to train your mind to drive through it.
Now when I go to ovals in NASCAR, there’s really no hesitation. I used to be a
little bit nervous or intimidated. I don’t have that anymore.

Adam: When does the car hook up
through the corner?

Josh: For the most part, when it’s
fully loaded. When the suspension’s working how it should be. Our guys at the
shop put these cars on big machines and pull the car down to where it’s fully
loaded — that’s where they make their suspension adjustments. Once you’re into
the corner and fully loaded, the car feels more hooked up. That’s when you pick
up the throttle and try to get the car pointed. In theory, if it’s loose in,
it’s going to rotate the car in a better direction for the exit. On paper, a
loose car should always be faster. But the driver needs to be adjusted to it. A
lot of dirt drivers like Larson, Christopher Bell — they can manage that
because they grew up racing on dirt.

Crew Chief Communication & Race Strategy

Adam: What does the communication with
your crew chief look like?

Josh: This year I’ll have a new crew
chief. The track can change, and the car needs to keep up. Every 25, 30, 40
laps, I’ll be telling my crew chief what the car is doing, what I need it to do
better. You make those adjustments, but then the sun starts setting and it’s
going to be something completely different. Sometimes the crew chief might tell
you to suck it up — hey, we’ve set this car up to be better at night, you just
have to drive through it. For me, it’s going to be about learning how my crew
chief is this year. He’s very straightforward. Some people don’t like that. I’m
okay with it.

Small Teams vs. Big Teams: The Engineering Gap

Adam: You’ve run for small teams, big
teams. What are the big differences in the Xfinity Series?

Josh: I’ve driven for all three
levels. The small teams, the midpack teams that achieve more than what they
have, and the powerhouse teams like Joe Gibbs. Granted, it was only two races
with Gibbs, but I was able to see the difference. A month before the race, we
were already on the simulator. I had a driver’s coach sending me notes. I had
never been to Portland. By the time I went with the Gibbs team, I literally
felt like I had been there before. The simulator time, the track notes from the
coach, talking with my crew chief and the engineers — everything prepared me.
We fired off sixth in practice, qualified ninth, and were top three, top four
throughout most of the race until I got cleaned out on a restart.

Josh: Then I’ve driven for teams like
Niece Motorsports — bigger than what I’m used to, but not the same level as
Gibbs. We had simulator time, but it wasn’t on the full-motion rig that’s a
multi-million-dollar machine. It’s on the static simulator, just like my
iRacing rig at home. Niece probably has 50 or 60 employees. Gibbs has 400.
That’s still a massive jump. Then you have the smaller teams like DGM Racing,
SS Greenlight Racing — we didn’t get any simulator time at DGM this year.

Factory Simulators vs. iRacing

Adam: When you say simulator time,
this isn’t your rig at home.

Josh: Each factory has a sim. Each
manufacturer has their sim — Chevy, Toyota, Ford. The Chevy simulator setup is
a lot different than mine at home. Mine runs off iRacing, which I’d say is 90%
accurate. The simulators at the Chevy center are 95% accurate, a little more
updated. When I drove at Gibbs, they changed the track layout for the first
time at the Roval, and they were making updates to the software while I was on
it. Small things like the paintings on the walls, the curbs, what style curbs.
I don’t have that on iRacing.

Josh: Without that real simulator
time, I’m still at my house prepping an hour, hour and a half a day for
multiple days leading up to the race. It’s very helpful on road courses, but
the braking zones are a little different, the grip level is a little different.
My lap time at the Roval in qualifying in real life was a tenth or two-tenths
off my simulator time. They’re that accurate.

The Role of the Engineer

Adam: When we went into the Gibbs
hauler, you had an engineer assigned to you. What are they doing at the track?

Josh: They’re running simulator
software on their computer. It’s not like me driving — they’re physically
running simulator software to figure out what changes to make. If I’m saying
the car is tight, they can run different numbers and settings, and the software
basically tells them if this fix is going to help or not. It’s a bunch of
numbers and bars and graphs. The engineer tells the crew chief which way to go.
As a smaller team, we don’t have an engineer. It’s just relying on driver
feedback and the crew chief’s ability to interpret it. It’s a lot more old
school.

Adam: It blows me away how a team with
a $2–5 million budget can get within two seconds of a team with a $20–30
million budget. What’s accounting for that extra $20 million?

Josh: They are the same parts. The big
separator team to team is the size of the engineering department, engines, pit
crews. If we want to lease an engine in the Cup Series for one race, it’s
$100,000. Thirty-six points-paying races, that’s a $3 million expense right
there. Then the pit crew. A good engineer probably wants a quarter million
dollars plus travel. You think about Hendrick — 400, 500 employees making good
money. It’s a money game.

Josh: In the Xfinity Series, we still
lease our pit crew from bigger teams. This year at DGM, we leased from Niece
Motorsports, ironically — a truck series team. The bigger teams like Gibbs,
their Sunday crew pits their Saturday cars. A few big teams lease their guys
out to smaller teams, but it comes with a bigger price.

Navigating Egos & Racing Smart

Adam: There’s a lot of intense moments
and tough personalities at the racetrack. How do you navigate that?

Josh: I’ve always been one of the
better people at putting stuff behind me very quickly. I don’t have a hot head.
If somebody pisses me off, I try to forget about it because I look at the whole
situation — our team’s a small team with a limited amount of cars. I don’t want
to tear up a car and cause more damage. The guys at the shop respect you for
that. I think that’s why I’m still going in NASCAR. My sponsorship dollars
shouldn’t have bought me a full season. But there’s a reason why I was hired —
they respect that mentality.

Josh: At COTA in 2022, another driver
made a stupid move on me. I made a stupid move back. He wrecked me coming to
the finish line. We finished 30th. I said something stupid on Twitter — “you’re
a rich kid racing.” His dad called our team owner and said, if you delete this,
we’ll pay for the damage. My team owner said, you’ve got to assess the bigger
picture. We finished 30th instead of 14th. We have a crashed race car. You’re
not going to go faster if you’re rebuilding a car every race weekend. That was
the last moment where I started thinking bigger picture.

Snowmobiling, Family & an Off-Season for Once

Adam: What else is going on? Growing
family, racing full-time.

Josh: My favorite thing to do is
snowmobile because there’s really no pressure. I ride fast, but for me it’s
just — I want to ride as much as I can in this four-hour window. I have a
Ski-Doo XRS 850. It’s fast — you’re doing 100 miles per hour in seconds.

Josh: My son is 11 months old. I’ve
taken him on my snowmobile, my little 110 pit bike. He’s a little afraid of the
noise and vibration. But when you grow up around it, you’re going to love it.
That’s my hope. This is the first time in my career I’ve had a deal done before
the off-season. The least stressful off-season I’ve had. It’s been enjoyable
with my son, knowing I have a paycheck coming in. I’m able to get ahead —
planning press releases, activations at races. Instead of chasing money, I’m
chasing deeper partnerships and more value for my sponsors.

Adam: Is the business side getting
easier?

Josh: I don’t think it’s getting
easier, but I have more connections now. A lot of my sponsors have been return
sponsors. Insurance King’s been with me since 2019. You’ve been on my car since
2019. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together a little easier than early
in my career because I have more partners. But there are still races that are
unsponsored.

San Diego, Daytona & the Chili Bowl

Adam: The San Diego race looks cool.

Josh: I’m really excited. I think it’s
north of three miles. Some longer straightaways. Very scenic with the aircraft
carriers in the background. Right in my wheelhouse being a road course.
Hopefully a little bumpy, because like Chicago, I can use that as an advantage.
Last year in the Cup Series at Chicago, we outqualified some really big teams
with an owned engine. We should have finished top 20 at least, but there was a
restart pileup and I got nose damage. We finished 21st. But Chicago was one of
the bumpiest tracks we’ve ever gone to, and it fit my wheelhouse. The San Diego
race is at Coronado, on the military base. It’s trucks on Friday, Xfinity on
Saturday, Cup on Sunday. Friday, from my understanding, will be no fans — only
open to military personnel.

Adam: We’ll be there for Daytona.

Josh: It’s always a fun start to the
year. Daytona’s top three for me. For us as a small team, it’s an equalizer —
we can run well. But next year, the race I’m most looking forward to is San
Diego.

Josh: Early January, my schedule gets
busy with trips to Charlotte. We have a production day with CW Sports. Then I’m
racing the Chili Bowl, which is in a midget car. That’s a full-week race —
practice on Sunday, feature race on Saturday. There are normally 400 cars
entered. Monday through Friday are elimination races to set yourself up for
Saturday. It’s indoor, in what was the largest freestanding building in the
country when it was built. Everything from your grassroots racer in an open
trailer to full-blown NASCAR-style semis with five or six cars. Those cars are
not cheap — some are $150,000. Four-cylinders pushing out 300 horsepower. This
year I’ll race for Chase McDermand again, with a partnership with Russ
Wittenkamp through Mulch Express of Wisconsin. Last year I won one of my main
races, which was pretty cool.

The Spark Reignited

Adam: Do you still love it as much as
you did when you started at four and a half years old?

Josh: It is different now that it’s my
job. Do I get as excited as I used to? Probably not. I have almost 250 NASCAR
starts, so it has plateaued a little bit. But one thing that reignited the
spark was the sports car program in the Porsche. We dominated — the team had 13
wins this year, I was with them for 11. And winning is fun. Most of my NASCAR
career hasn’t been in the most competitive equipment. There are times I have to
settle for 20th. On paper, when you’re a 30th-place team, 20th is great. But
we’re not racing for wins.

Josh: The Porsche program, combined
with the Round Three Racing team — good group of guys, like-minded people. And
the birth of my son — if I had a bad weekend, I put it behind me really
quickly. I go home and see my son. A combination of things this year reignited
the spark, and I’m excited for next year.

Closing

Adam: Well, thanks a lot, man. We’ll
see you down at Daytona. Going to the track is one of my favorite things to do.

Josh: Daytona is just the start of the
year. You’re in the pits, it’s fresh off the off-season, you’re itching to get
back to the track. We just need the weather to cooperate.

Adam: Thanks a lot.

Josh: Thank you, Adam.