Bilicki is Back – Wisconsin NASCAR Driver Talks 2022 Racing Season + More!

Racing Budgets & The Cost Question

Adam: Yeah, we're just talking about
racing and budgets. Regardless of the level of racing you're in, it doesn't
take too long to realize that racing is expensive. At the level you're at, it
gets even crazier. You were just talking about some of the things with the new
car next year in NASCAR — some of the things they're doing to attempt to lower
the costs. From your perspective, do you see over time that will continue, or
will the larger teams find ways to get an edge via spending more money?

The Next-Gen Car

Josh: I think the Next Gen car is
going to bring the cost down long term, especially for the bigger teams — it's
going to require less chassis. But right now, with the development going on,
and especially for the small teams too, I can tell you teams are spending more.
Even just the teams that I've driven for, the Rick Ware Racings, the amount
that we're spending this year compared to last year, it's tripled the budget,
just because everything's brand new. We can't buy secondhand parts. And out of
the 40 Cup Series teams in NASCAR, there's really only 10 teams that are on a
strict budget like that, so the other 30 teams could still be spending the
same. I think in the long run, in 10 years from now, they're going to spend
less, because now they're buying chassis instead of spending all this money to
develop a chassis.

R&D Spending in Racing

Adam: It's kind of interesting too,
from a business perspective. We're in the products business — we engineer, we
manufacture lighting products, and we're always setting aside R&D dollars
every single year. We're researching, developing new things. I would think that
maybe what you're saying is, a lot of the smaller teams have an operating
budget, but the R&D budget more or less isn't there. The larger teams are
always going to be investing in R&D and operating as well. Hopefully some
of the attempts to lower the cost pay off. It's funny — we both come from
similar backgrounds, our dads got us into racing, both were Ford guys. We were
working on their cars, and really, there are so many people at the grassroots
level — the only reason they can race is because they know how to work on their
cars. They're kind of mechanic-drivers. It's been interesting watching you get
into NASCAR and just seeing things from that perspective — it's a different
animal.

Josh: I'm frowned upon now if I touch
the car in the Cup Series, to be honest. Whereas two or three years ago when I
was driving the Xfinity Series — I signed a deal in 2019, it was a part-time
deal — part of my requirement was I had to help push the car through tech.

Adam: Really?

Josh: Yeah. So now that you're at the
Cup Series, they want you to just focus on driving. Obviously I still try to
help push the car through tech and things like that, but most of my time as a
driver is either spent focusing on driving and looking at data throughout the
weekend, or even just the sponsorship and partnership side throughout the week.
I'm more valuable as a driver to bring sponsors, rather than work in the shop.
Whereas 20 or 30 years ago, the roles may have been reversed. But back to our
conversation before — the cost in the last 15, 20, 30 years has gone so
outrageously up that drivers like myself are more valuable just to find
sponsorship dollars, and actually hire another crew chief or another engineer
at the shop to take my place.

Digital Engineering & Simulation

Adam: That makes sense. We were
talking when we were at Daytona — I was kind of asking about some of the
engineering side, and how much of that has shifted towards digital. Are there
software packages where — if you look at automotive engineering, cars are built
and simulated in the digital environment long before they ever get into the
physical world. I would imagine some of the larger teams have to emulate a lot
of the stuff that the automotive engineering world does. How has that shifted
the last couple years during the pandemic, when teams aren't testing as much?
Do you see people taking advantage more of digital engineering simulations?

Josh: For me, driving for a small
team, we never really had that option, to be honest. I think some of the bigger
teams that are supported pretty heavily by the manufacturers — I think Ford
probably has a whole department, Chevy has systems, Toyota has systems. With us
not really being aligned with an actual manufacturer the last couple years, at
least for the teams I've been driving for, I don't know how to answer those
questions because I've never really seen these programs. But I'm sure the big
teams have had those. And I'm sure with this new car there's a lot of computer
software going on, different trials run on the computer. That's one reason why
the budget, I'm sure, has gone up so much, because obviously these things take
money — having to invest in new personnel and new ways of doing things.

CAD Models & Wind Tunnels

Adam: Hopefully in the long term — I
do think that if there's a CAD model of your car that can be simulated in
different software packages, in the short term there's probably a cost
associated with hiring a few engineers to do that, but over time I think that would
level off the playing field and hopefully more teams have access to that type
of knowledge.

Josh: I agree. If you model it on a
computer, at the end of the day, in five years from now, it's going to cost
less than it is to actually take that real car to a wind tunnel.

Daytona & Restrictor-Plate Racing

Adam: For sure. It was fun being down
at Daytona this past year. One of the things that was really interesting to me
is the dynamics of the superspeedway racing versus some of the road course
racing, and how superspeedway — circle, or restrictor plate — actually kind of
levels the playing field in some ways. I didn't realize that going in, but it
was interesting to learn about.

Josh: For the qualifying efforts, I
think you still see a pretty similar result. But when you're in a pack, you
have the draft — that's when a small team can really perform well. Stay in a
pack — we finished 10th at the last Daytona race, the night race, which was a
big result for us. That was awesome. I think part of the reason is because a
track like Daytona and Talladega, it's so long — they're 2.5 miles, 2.6 miles,
Talladega — the track and the cars don't require tons of mechanical grip. So
even though we are using a little bit older chassis, that's not a huge
disadvantage for us. Our bodies might not create as much downforce as some of
the big teams, but the track doesn't require that much downforce, doesn't
require much mechanical grip because you're wide open the whole time. So as
long as you can stay in the draft, which I feel that we did a really good job
at, finishing 10th at Daytona, you can have a shot.

Daytona Road Course Brake Failure

Adam: Yeah. And then the Daytona races
— there were three races at Daytona, right? Two superspeedways and then the
road course. You had a really good result going at the road course race, it was
the following weekend. What happened at the end?

Josh: Yeah, so Daytona 500 was the
first weekend. The second race of the year was the Daytona Road Course. We had
a pretty solid result — I think we would have probably had a really close to
top-20 finish. And with, I think, three laps to go, I was going into the last
chicane that they added just for our NASCAR race cars, because they're so
heavy, they needed to slow the cars down before that first braking zone. I went
to hit the brake pedal, and the pedal went to the floor. Our used parts didn't
hold up, to be honest. Our brake rotor exploded, and it could have been really
bad, because those pieces went into the grandstands. The rotor exploded, there
were parts everywhere. Luckily I didn't hit anybody else — it was a temporary
chicane they added, so I was able to just go straight, and I didn't clobber my
teammate, but I was really freaking close.

Adam: That's one where you feel lucky
and unlucky all at the same time.

Josh: I was able to just coast in. I
coasted down pit road, came to a stop all the way at the pit road. I got out of
my car because my car was on fire, and there were two laps to go in the race.
There were officials right there, but they're not putting the car out, because
if they would go over pit wall onto the hot racetrack — where my car was, even
though it's pit road, it's still hot — if there was somebody on pit road, they
would have to yellow-flag the race. They didn't want to because there were only
two laps left, it was a pretty good race. So I just sat there watching my car.
It didn't burn down completely, but the whole front end was on fire. So it was
a little unfortunate, but at the end of the day it could have been worse.

Adam: You could have lost brakes in
turn one at Road America, or turn five — hasn't that happened to you before?

Josh: Unfortunately, yes.

Road America Recap

Adam: Just me and used parts don't add
up — it's unfortunate, but it's part of our sport. These cars are heavy, hot,
high horsepower, long races. On the Road America topic, that was a good finish,
that was a fun weekend between the two races.

Josh: We had the Xfinity race on
Saturday — it was Fourth of July weekend — and then the Cup race on Sunday.
That was the first time the Cup Series came to Road America. They had a record
crowd there. It just felt packed. It was the busiest sporting event ever held
in Wisconsin, so that was cool. I think over 150,000 people there. On the
Xfinity side on Saturday, we were really, really fast — we were running in the
top 10, that was fun. And then I got taken out, I mean clear as day I got taken
out by somebody behind me who lost brakes. So it just shows that these cars
definitely lose brakes at road courses. And then Sunday we had a solid
23rd-place finish with Screamin' Sicilian Pizza on the car, so that was pretty
cool to have a hometown sponsor and have a good finish for them. We beat Chase,
we beat Bubba Wallace, we beat teams that spend five or six times what we did.
It was a cool finish for us. At the time, that was my career-best finish, so it
was a good day at your home track. It was an awesome weekend. Next year we're
back Fourth of July weekend, brand-new car, which is essentially a road course
car, so I think next year is going to be even better.

Year in Review

Adam: Nice. So we talked about some of
the highlights. If you zoom back and look at the year in review, what are some
of the things that come to mind?

Josh: Top five in no order would be
the Daytona 500, which was cool — and you guys were the sponsor on that, so
that's cool, that Wisconsin Lighting Lab was the sponsor on my first ever
Daytona 500.

Adam: Thanks for having us. We
appreciate that.

Josh: That was a cool experience to be
a part of, because that's something that, to be honest, I never thought I'd be
able to achieve and race in the Daytona 500. I knew that I could make a career
in NASCAR, but I didn't think that I'd be in the biggest race in the country,
so that was cool. Our top 10 at Daytona was another great memory. Our finish at
Road America was cool. Our finish at Indianapolis Road Course — which was a
really chaotic race, but we still finished 17th — that was cool. And then I'd
say another memory would probably be Bristol Dirt. I've never raced on dirt
before, and in the NASCAR Cup Series, that was a pretty cool feature.

Adam: I know it was a lot of fun in
iRacing — I can't imagine what it was like in real life.

Josh: It was different. It was kind of
like you're driving on dirty asphalt, just because the track rubbered up so
quick and got so hard-packed that you couldn't drive it like you thought you
would. It didn't drive like a dirt track, I'll tell you that. All the guys like
Kyle Larson, who has a lot of dirt experience — everyone was picking him to win
that race — he actually wasn't even the fastest guy there, because it wasn't a
real true dirt track. I know next year they're going to make some changes —
they're going to race at night so the track doesn't get so dusty, doesn't get
so hard-packed right away. They're going to hopefully prep the track a little
bit better next year too.

Taking a Step Back

Adam: Nice. Do you ever spend time to
take a step back and enjoy it? I know you spend so much time on the business
side, and with smaller teams — not necessarily, you're providing a lot of your
own funding via your partners and your sponsorships — do you ever just have fun
and enjoy it?

Josh: It's really hard to do, and
there are times where I do take a step back and I'm like, you know, pinch
yourself a little bit. But I'd say most of the time I don't really feel like
that. I always feel like there's something more to achieve. Even last year,
racing full-time, I worked incredibly hard every single week to try to bring in
more partnerships so we could race better, so we'd beat the dollar amount we
needed. My goal for 2022 is to have all that taken care of before the season
even starts, and I think we're really close to that. So then I can actually
focus on being a driver throughout the season, and I think at that point I can
take a step back and breathe and say, alright, this is my job to go race cars
now, not to bring in more money. I think we're really close to that. My time
from Thanksgiving to Christmas is usually the time I look forward to, but these
last couple of weeks have been so crazy busy, definitely a roller coaster of
emotions. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we have some exciting news to
share, and then I think I can take a step back after that and just breathe and
enjoy.

The Business Side of NASCAR

Adam: Whenever I talk to people and
your name comes up, I don't think people realize how much time you spend trying
to make it work on the business side. People think NASCAR drivers — oh, they're
a NASCAR driver, they drive. That's the case for probably a relatively — I
don't know what percentage of drivers — that are able to spend 100% of their
focus on it, but with smaller teams, you have to play a dual role. You've got
to be the business guy, the sales guy, the marketing person, and the driver.
I'm sure you encounter that a lot — people have no idea what you're actually
doing in the background.

Josh: There are other NASCAR Cup
Series drivers, even drivers driving for top teams — I mean, I think Brad
Keselowski is a great example — it's probably never easy. There's always the
back-end side of it that people don't see. I definitely agree, there are drivers
who just — they're just drivers. Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, they are drivers.
But on the flip side, guys like Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, they own other
businesses too. Brad Keselowski owns a manufacturing company. He does a lot of
work with SpaceX.

Adam: He does? That's really cool.

Josh: Kevin Harvick — the majority of
the sponsors on Kevin Harvick's cars come from Kevin Harvick Incorporated,
which is his business.

Adam: Interesting. So in a way, he's
no different than you are. Obviously, Kevin Harvick is Kevin Harvick — even if
he didn't have Kevin Harvick Inc., I think he'd still be in the sport, but he's
essentially probably doing it for fun to some degree at this point, or is it
the marketing arm of his businesses promoting those businesses?

Josh: His business, Kevin Harvick
Incorporated, I know they handle some sponsorship stuff. They also have like a
PGA golfer, they have a couple other NASCAR drivers with them. Most of those
sponsor deals — I overheard Kevin Harvick talking to another guy about how they
bought out Jimmy John's, now Subway's their sponsor, and just hearing him talk
about that — it's something I can kind of see myself doing one day if I'm with
a top team like that, using my own partners. I think that's cool, and
definitely having that skill will take you further in your career, especially
when you're away from the track.

Adam: Absolutely. That's a great
perspective.

iRacing

Adam: So last night we were doing some
racing on iRacing, and your team this year did pretty well in the iRacing
races. I think they cut it short — there were supposed to be more races?

Josh: Yeah, so we start the season on
Fox and then we end the season on NBC. Fox had all their scheduled iRaces, then
we had another whole season set up for the NBC side, and they canned all of
those. I was really disappointed about that, because we had some really strong
runs — top 10 at COTA, second, we finished second at the Chicago race. My
teammate James Davidson, he's just another animal on iRacing — he won two races
in a row. I don't know if I could compete against him, but the Rick Ware Racing
squad finished 1-2-4 at Chicago. We were definitely the powerhouse team, which
is cool because it shows what we can do in equal equipment. James Davidson, my
teammate this year — he's an amazing driver, he's an open-wheel driver. He's
raced everything. He had the opportunity to drive for Joe Gibbs a couple times
in the Xfinity Series at Mid-Ohio and Road America, and he showed that he could
win races. And then he took a step back — obviously he drove for Rick Ware
Racing, same level that I was at — and he couldn't believe how hard he had to
drive to finish 30th. So it was cool to have that iRacing platform televised
live to show that, listen, we can be competitive. We had a lot of positive
moments. Even during real races, they were talking about me and my teammates
and how well we ran, and what we could do had we had equal equipment in real
life.

Adam: I remember — I forget who it
was, but Mike Joy referenced one of the tweets you had about your dad's car. He
talked about the vintage racing side of it.

Josh: Mike Joy actually races himself
vintage.

Adam: Does he really?

Josh: Yeah. He races in the Historic
Trans Am series — I think it's a '67 Mustang he vintage races. He definitely
likes the fact that our dad vintage races. He was also the one that put in a
good word too when we were at Texas for the All-Star race — he was talking
about me and my teammate James Davidson, what we could do in real life had we
had equal equipment, like we did on iRacing.

Adam: That's great to have an advocate
in that type of position.

Live iRacing Cancellation

Josh: He's a cool guy. Unfortunately
the NBC side got cut off — I don't know why — I mean, some of those races got a
million views.

Adam: It was funny because they're on
Tuesdays or Wednesdays — I'd get home from work and like, oh, there's a race on
tonight. At one point we were eating dinner and the race was on, and my wife,
30 or 40 minutes into the race, she didn't realize that it was a simulated
race. The races looked so good. It seems so real. There was one in Chicago,
it's like, man, you're literally driving downtown Chicago right now.

Josh: And it gives us to provide our
sponsors — we had Wisconsin Lighting Lab, we got legitimate TV time. Sometimes
we don't even get that in real life. I was bummed, and I think my teammates
were also bummed when they canceled that. Hopefully one day they can do it
again, or maybe we can organize their own — we wouldn't get the TV time, but
it's definitely a cool platform, iRacing.

COTA in the Rain

Adam: Speaking of COTA, that race was
crazy. That was in pouring rain downtown.

Josh: That was the craziest race I'd
ever been in. You couldn't see anything. These cars are not built to race in
the rain — up until two or three years ago, we never did race in the rain. Tons
of power and no downforce.

Adam: Right. And also just the
visibility factor — you can't see out of these cars, the windows fog up.

Josh: Even some of the best teams out
there, like Joe Gibbs — there was a, the Radioactive quotes are hilarious,
because Radioactive basically takes all the best quotes from the
driver/crew-chief combos, puts it in like a five-minute video — Denny Hamlin
says something about his windshield wipers backwards. It's going on his
passenger side and not even stopping on his driver's side, which is like — this
is a team that's spending $40 million a car, and their windshield wiper is
backwards. Everybody had the issue — my windshield wiper fell off, other
windshield wipers fell off. You're going so fast in these cars, these
windshield wipers aren't meant to be on there at 180 miles per hour. So my
windshield wiper fell off during a pit stop, we just put a ton of the Rain-X
stuff on and just hoped that it would work, but you couldn't see anything.

Adam: There was a giant crash at the
end.

Josh: I forget who it was, but he just
ran right into the back of another car. Like you said, there's zero visibility.
We ran around 25th the whole race. Right there in the thick of it, down the
back stretch, which is a long back stretch — with these cars you're upwards of
180, you can't see anything with all the spray coming from the cars ahead of
you. Somebody even recommended that we had mud flaps, which to be honest, would
take care of the problem. It's the tires that create all the spray, it's not
the underneath body of the car — it's all the tires. But when you're behind 10
cars, you can't see anything. I think Kevin Harvick at one point lifted really
early because he couldn't see where he was going, he just got rear-ended. And
it happened twice, I think, on the back stretch — it was just a massive wreck.
Somehow we avoided all of it luckily, finished the race. I know they called it
really early. But that was probably the craziest race I'd ever been in.

Racing in the Rain: Generational Split

Adam: It was wild to watch on TV as
well. I don't know if drivers like the fact that NASCAR runs in the rain now —
I'm sure it kind of levels the playing field. I know at Road America a couple
years ago, you led a few laps in the rain. I don't know if some of the smaller
teams like it, the larger teams don't. What do you hear?

Josh: To be honest, I think that's an
age question. Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. — they said, can we hold for this
stuff? We have no idea, we shouldn't be out here. All the young drivers are
saying, let's go, let's do this. Chase Elliott loved it, Kyle Larson loved it.
Then some of the older gentlemen who were still out there said, we shouldn't be
out here. But I think that falls back — it's like a road racing thing too,
probably. Kevin Harvick, they're from the 2000 era, where we had never even
thought about racing in the rain. Maybe we did one or two tests, but from their
generation they think we have no business of racing in the rain. From my
generation, I love it. The younger drivers are all for it — we just need to fix
the visibility issue.

Road Course Racing & the Coliseum

Adam: Yeah, it seems like NASCAR is
trying a lot of different stuff. You have the dirt race, there's a race in
California now, the Coliseum. I read a little bit about that. The road course
racing seems to be more and more important. Judging by the turnout at Road
America, I would like to think that's a pretty good impression for road racing
in general. It's cool to see it changing in recent years.

Josh: I think this Next Gen car — it's
essentially a road course car. That's really what we're going to try to make
happen — make it handle well on all those tracks. So it's kind of the opposite
of what's always been.

Adam: I see. So it's the opposite —
people have mixed opinions about that, because how many ovals are there versus
road courses?

Josh: There are 31 ovals, 30 ovals
versus six road courses. So the majority of the races you're going to be
fighting the car, the balance of the cars, because the car has so much
downforce it actually doesn't drive nearly as good as the cars that we're
racing right now on some of the mile-and-half tracks. But some of the short
tracks and the road courses, it's going to be awesome at. So it's kind of
flipped. In my opinion, I think it's going to be great for me since I have a
road course background, but on the ovals it's going to be really challenging to
drive.

Superspeedway Aero & The Dart Analogy

Adam: What's it like at high speed on
the ovals, like some of the superspeedways from an aero standpoint? I've had a
lot of fun driving some of the superspeedways on iRacing, and obviously it's
still a simulation, but even with the current car, some crazy things can happen
when you're passing, when you're drafting. More or less what you're saying —
that'll only be amplified with the new car, since that's more or less optimized
for road racing.

Josh: You kind of feel like you're
floating when you're out there in a pack. There's not much downforce in your
car. You feel like the car is just kind of moving around, walking around —
almost like a dart with no feathers, it just kind of walks around. That's
terminology a lot of people use, a dart with no — the things in the back, you
know what I'm talking about —

Adam: Fletchings.

Josh: Yes, fletchings. So at 190 miles
per hour, it's definitely uncomfortable. I think that's a great way to put it.
When you're out there by yourself, you have all the downforce in the world, but
when you're three-wide at Daytona — Daytona is pretty narrow — that's
definitely when there's no downforce on your car and it's very uncomfortable.
The rear end of the car can just step out at any moment because you're
side-drafting. These cars have a lot of right-side downforce, called side
force, and when you have a car you're outside, they're taking all that air
away. All it takes is for the car in the middle or the car on the bottom to
lose it, and then that's when these 20-car wrecks happen.

Adam: Are you thinking about it that
technically when you're out there, or at this point is it just kind of
happening? You're more or less in the game and you're just reacting to it, or
do you know that when somebody comes up to you on a certain side, it's going to
get crazy?

Josh: I think there are drivers that
do think about that. I think Denny Hamlin is one of the best superspeedway
racers there are, because he puts himself in a position where he's not going to
get moved around like that by the air. You can get moved around by the air —
you can not touch somebody, but you can drive their door and get them loose and
spin them out. I think Denny Hamlin doesn't put himself in that position. There
are a couple other drivers that are really smart like that too. On the flip
side, there are drivers that just put themselves in any position, even if they
shouldn't be. They'll put it three-wide where they're on the bottom and then
they'll wreck and they'll wonder why they wrecked. It's because they put
themselves in a position they shouldn't have been in. So it really depends on
the drivers. I think myself — obviously driving for a small team, I'm more of a
smart driver, I'm not going to put myself in that position. I think that's why
we've had some really good finishes at the superspeedways this year.

Moneyball & Race-Selection Strategy

Adam: I watched the movie Moneyball a
few weeks ago — the Oakland A's that ended up using statistics and all these
different methods, they ended up doing really well that year. It's almost like
an Alan Kulwicki approach to racing, where you really got to think at the
season holistically — it's not about that moment or that race. Do you see some
of the front-running teams coaching their drivers in that way? Are they
starting to get into statistics, starting to get into different ways of looking
at the race? Are there sports psychologists at the larger teams?

Josh: I'm sure there probably are.
Again, I've never seen sports psychologists — I've never really driven for a
big team. I think even just some of the small teams, you can plan out races
where you think you can be more competitive at. There are races where you're
just going to be a 25th- or 30th-place car because you don't have that
downforce, mechanical grip. So you've got to look at the races where you can be
really competitive at and make sure that those are the races that you're going
to put more of an effort towards. But I'm sure the big teams do the same thing.
It depends on the drivers too — there are some drivers who just can't run the
road courses, so their only goal for the road races is just to finish the race.
But maybe there are drivers who are great at the short tracks or the
intermediate-type tracks, and that's where they need to capitalize on for those
races. Joe Gibbs this year was really good on the mile-and-a-half tracks, so
they probably looked at all the mile-and-half tracks and put more focus and
emphasis on those races, rather than some of these other races where they know
they're not as good.

Looking Ahead to Next Year

Adam: That makes sense. I know you're
still working out a few things, but what can you tell us about next year?

Josh: It's definitely going to be more
progression. Since my start in NASCAR, my start in professional racing in 2015
in road course racing, every year has progressed, gotten better. I've learned a
lot on the business side, but also on the track too. This year we took a step,
went full season, which I think was great for my career — I've been in every
single race now. Just learned a lot behind the scenes too — how to approach a
full-season effort. Because 36 races, 38 when you count the non-points-paying
races, it's a lot of races. So next year will definitely be more progress. I
think next year is going to be more about quality over quantity. Some of the
races we do, even not on the Cup side, even on the Truck or Xfinity side, are
going to be races where we can legitimately go and try to fight for a win,
which would be great. And then the Cup side too — with this new Next Gen car, I
think we're going to be a lot more competitive. We're going to really focus on
the races where we feel that we can maybe go out there and legitimately score a
top 10, or maybe a surprise win. You saw AJ Allmendinger — he's a part-time
driver in the Cup Series, he won at the Indianapolis road course this last
year. I think we're going to have the opportunity to surprise a lot of people
next year. I can't say which team I'm driving for yet, but I can tell you it's
going to be the best year I've had. Right now, 2022 is about setting myself up
for 2023, 2024, setting myself up for the future. I think the route I'm headed
definitely has that as a goal.

Progress & Adversity

Adam: That's exciting. There are
probably thousands of people at this point watching your career progress. Like
you said, probably since you were in karting, it's just every year, every
couple of years, just keep getting better. Even on the business side, not every
year is going to be exactly what you want, but did you grow? We look at that
here the last couple of years from a business standpoint — things have been
challenging, but there are still so many opportunities and ways to grow. I'm
sure NASCAR is similar.

Josh: I think it tells a lot about a
business too, how they face adversity. Drivers no different — even on the
business side, how you face adversity, and you can use those challenges to
grow.

Early NASCAR Stories: The Bike Racing Saga

Adam: For sure. What are some of the
crazy early NASCAR stories? I know you had some interesting rides early on in
NASCAR. We've got time.

Josh: I'll just start by elaborating
about how I got my start into NASCAR. It was with a team called Bike Racing. It
was 2016. I was supposed to run the Trans Am TA2 race at Road America, which
was a support series to the NASCAR race, and the deal with that car kind of
fell apart. It was like a backyard operation — the gentleman was a very nice
guy, just the car wasn't ready in time, even though we thought it was going to
be. I was pretty bummed about that, so I looked at the entry list for the
NASCAR race and saw one team had both their cars listed as “To Be Announced” —
this is Wednesday. So I'm like, what the heck, I'm going to send them a
Facebook message. The team was Bike Racing. I sent them a Facebook message,
didn't know anything about the team, didn't know anything about NASCAR — I
didn't know there's this huge gap from these teams spending $5 million in the
Xfinity Series to these teams spending $20 million. In some cases, I didn't
know this, because in IMSA, either you show up at the right stuff or you don't.
I ran a handful of IMSA races in 2016. So I messaged this team, they messaged
me back right away and said, yes, we're looking for a driver for one car. See
what you can do for sponsorship, see if you can get your license — that's the
first step. I had my IMSA license, NASCAR owns IMSA, so that transferred over
right away. I put together — I bought four sets of tires for the weekend, so
that got me in the car. I get to the racetrack. The team is owned by a Nigerian
businessman, and the team basically didn't even have the car ready when I got
to the track. The car's in pieces in the parking lot, in the pits. I'm like,
what's going on here? This is the backup car. They're like, no, no, we just
need to finish converting this car to a road course car. So I'm like, alright,
I guess I understand, this is a small team. We missed first practice. We went
out for second practice — ran a handful of laps, I think four or five laps. It
was the biggest, heaviest car I've ever driven, but I had some experience in
the TA2 car, so that definitely helped. Without that experience, I probably
would have been lost. We were sitting pretty good — I think we were around 20th
on the scoreboard, which the team was very surprised about. But they never once
told me, listen, we're using — we're not using correct brake pads, we're using
used tires. They never told me to go out there and drive carefully or
cautiously, they just told me to go out there and just get comfortable. So I'm
out there — probably my third or fourth lap, I don't think I'm pushing super
hard — and I go into turn one. Road America has a very long front straightaway,
fast too — 175 in the Cup car — and I go to hit the brakes. The brake pedal
just goes to the floor. What happened was, the brake-bleeder screw in the
front-left caliper was stripped. They heli-coiled it, and the heli-coil
expanded, and it just came out. I still had rear-brake pressure, so the rear
brakes locked up, the front brakes didn't even grab. I spun out, went to the
gravel trap. The gravel did its job — I didn't hit the wall, surprisingly. I
don't know how I didn't hit the wall.

Adam: Isn't there a YouTube video of
that?

Josh: Yes, you can find it. So I drive
back to the pits, and my team's like, yeah, we've had this issue, this is going
to get fixed. So my dad and I are on our mopeds watching the last practice, and
there goes my car on track. I'm like, what the heck — did I do something wrong?
Are they kicking me out of the seat here? So I quickly race back, I'm like, why
is my car out there? Well, my teammate crashed on lap one of practice, she
needed to make a lap, so they put her out in my car with no brakes, just so she
can make a lap. At that point I'm questioning, what's going on with this team?
Should I even do this? I just did it anyways. The next day for qualifying, same
exact thing happens — it was just two laps into qualifying. Same situation
going into turn one, but I hit the wall, since I was going a little bit faster,
since it was qualifying. Did some damage to the car, didn't destroy the car. We
fixed the car, patched it up. It looked like garbage, but we still made the
start of the race. I think we had to start dead last. We were sitting 23rd
before that happened, which would have been their best qualifying effort ever,
but since we had to touch the car after qualifying, we started dead last. Then
three laps into the race, the car died — they didn't plug the alternator while
you're plugging the connector, the battery wasn't charging, and we didn't have
another battery. So everything — that was my first race ever with Bike Racing.
They invited me back two more times to race ovals — Phoenix later that year and
then Homestead. Phoenix was my first ever oval. Finished the race, logged all
the laps. So honestly, it was a bit of a crap show, but to be honest, without
that I wouldn't be where I am.

Learning Experiences

Adam: Yeah, you probably look back —
you don't regret any of it. Obviously some of those situations are pretty good
learning experiences.

Josh: Oh yeah. And then even at the
start of 2017, the team invited me to four races in a row. All four races I
went, I flew on my own dime — the car just wasn't ready, or I didn't race, or
the car — I flew to Vegas at the beginning of 2017 to race for this team. The
car was missing a window net, missing seatbelts, because they just didn't put
it in the hauler. So we're trying to steal parts off our second car to put on
my car, and then I'm in the car ready to go and the car won't start. They're
like, we need to get this other car out on track so they can run laps too. So I
took everything off, and I was SOL — I didn't make any laps, so I couldn't even
qualify. I didn't even start the race.

Losing Brakes Twice at Road America

Adam: It's every racer's worst
nightmare to lose brakes into turn one at Road America. How did you slow it
down?

Josh: I downshifted. I mean, I
downshifted early, but with the rear brakes still grabbing somewhat, it just
put me in the spin right away, to be honest. I'm surprised and lucky I didn't
flip, because I did hit the gravel sideways. If you guys are listening to this,
you can go to YouTube and just type in “Josh Bilicki Road America” — there's a
YouTube video about me losing brakes.

Adam: Did this happen in turn 12 at
one point?

Josh: This was 2018. I was also
driving for a small team with used brakes. I had a pretty good budget for the
race — I put together a lot of sponsorship efforts for that race in 2018. But
my team at the time just didn't put the sponsorship efforts towards our car, I
guess, and we were running used brakes. Part of the requirement was, I needed
good brakes. This is my chance to run well. We were running good — I think we
were running inside the top 20. We were racing with Ty Majeski — he was in a
Roush car — and we had a car, it was crap, but we were still running well. I
just remember thinking to myself, I'm just going to drive as hard as I can. I
got the budget we needed to race this race, and I lost brakes. I wasn't
over-driving, we just didn't have the right parts, the right brakes. Lost
brakes again. So yeah, I lost brakes twice at Road America — two separate
occasions. Three actually, if you think of twice the first week ever, and then
2018. But that's just — you can check both those learning experiences. It's a
learning experience for me too, looking back now — I should have known what I
had, both times, just knowing that we had used parts. There are ways to get
around that too, just making sure you know what you have. I didn't ask
questions the first time, so I don't know if that was my fault or not. The
second time, I knew that we had used parts, but I was also just driving.

Adam: You're excited to be part of
that race too.

Wisconsin Lighting Lab & Wrap-Up

Adam: So anything else you want to
touch on? I know you've got some new partners and some other exciting things
going on.

Josh: I can't quite announce a partner
deal for next year yet. Like I said, I think next year is going to be a great
year. Obviously this year was cool to have Wisconsin Lighting Lab on board. We
kind of talked about it, but you were my first sponsor on my first ever Daytona
500. I thought that was really cool. This year was a good year. We finished the
highest out of our four Rick Ware Racing cars. We had the best two finishes of
the year, which was 10th at Daytona, 17th at Indy. I looked at that as a positive.
I finished the last 33 races running, which is the second-highest streak in
NASCAR Cup Series. So it was a good year, to be honest. It wouldn't have been
possible without you guys, so thank you, Wisconsin, for coming on board, and
hopefully there's more to come on both of our sides.

Adam: Yeah, I hope so. It was fun to
play a small role in the season. It's funny how many people came out of the
woodwork once we announced it — just very positive vibes overall. The rally
around a Wisconsin driver — getting contacted from people that have followed
you. Anything we can do to play a part in it. Thanks for a lot of fun. It was
fun to be part of Daytona. I'd been to the track once for a tour but had never
been part of the race — just seeing that facility is pretty cool as well.

Josh: We didn't get the full
experience — it was still somewhat COVID-related, so I think there were only
50% capacity in the grandstands. We didn't have the pre-race ceremonies, so I
couldn't have any of you guys in the pits. That part kind of stunk for all parties
involved. But by the time Road America rolled around, things had opened up a
little bit more, so that was fun — seeing the behind-the-scenes in the pits.

Adam: Well, cool man. Thanks for
coming back through. You're welcome any time. Good luck next season. I'm sure
we'll see you soon.

Josh: Thank you, Adam. I appreciate
it. Thanks a lot.