Yahoo Autos Why the Nashville and Chicago Cup Series races are pivotal for Bilicki
Menominee Falls, Wisconsin’s Josh Bilicki is a part-time NASCAR Cup Series driver competing for the Zeigler Auto Group. He’s competed in three Cup races thus far in 2023 — at Circuit of The Americas, Kansas and Sonoma — and will the next two races on the schedule at Nashville Superspeedway and the Chicago street race.
“We have a couple of big weeks coming,” said the driver of the No. 78 Chevrolet. “Here at Nashville, we are going to have a big group of sponsors at the race. So that’s important. But then even looking at next week and Chicago, that’s also a huge race for my sponsors. So we have two big weekends, back-to-back, and coming into Nashville, it’s busy because we’re not only prepping for Nashville, but we’re also making sure we’re one step ahead for Chicago. And that means me as a race car driver preparing myself. I was on the simulator in Charlotte on Monday. That was a day trip and then I came right back home and on Tuesday I was catching up from the weekend because I was at Road America all weekend. I’m catching up on emails, sending more pictures out and making sure my sponsors are taken care of. We like to basically be one step ahead. Capitalizing on this opportunity is huge for us.”
Bilicki explained why the sponsors supporting his efforts in both the Midwest and Southeast over the next two weeks are critical elements to the season for him — and them.
“The Zeigler Auto Group is my anchor sponsor this year. Their headquarters are in Michigan. They have 35 stores, but 22 of them are in the Chicago area. So most of their business is in Chicago, even though their headquarters are in Michigan. So that’s why the Chicago race is so big,” he related. To also have them on the car in Nashville is so cool. Nashville is a fun atmosphere and the racetrack is pretty unique. Then we go to Chicago, which is a street circuit which is something that we’ve never done before. You got two really, really different racetracks, but it’s really good to do with them both with the same group. Like I said, we just want to capitalize on the opportunity of both race weekends.
“The atmosphere in Nashville, it’s awesome. There’s a lot of hype around this race weekend for a couple of different reasons. For one it is because how awesome the city is. And two, it is the start of the NBC broadcast season. You know, we just want to be capitalizing on all the opportunities that we have for promoting our sponsors there and then we go to Chicago.”
Bilicki’s last Cup race outing came at Sonoma Raceway, where he placed 30th on the day. Still, Bilicki, aged 28, was pleased with the effort.
Bilicki dices with Team Penske’s Austin Cindric at Sonoma, where he feels “we punched above our weight all day.” Motorsport Images
“At Sonoma we were punching above our weight all day,” he reckoned. “We were we were fast and I think we impressed a lot of people. You know, we’re still a small team. We have, I think, 15 employees, and we’re racing against Hendrick who has almost 500. So there’s a huge gap there. So any day that we can be racing competitively against those guys is a great day. Sonoma was a good example of that. But yeah, we go to Nashville now, which is a little bit tougher for us. The circle tracks, we struggle there just because we don’t have as many engineers and we don’t have the best aero package. We’re not bad, don’t get me wrong. Right now everyone is really, really, really good and we’re just good. So our approach for Nashville is to be running all the laps and to make sure we’re not in any of the mess.
“We want to be competitive. We want to race. But we also have realistic expectations that we’re not going to be in the top 20 on speed. You know, if we were, that’s a huge win for us. But the track itself is actually a lot of fun. It is a 1.3-mile. Most of the tracks that we go to that are that shape are 1.5 miles, so it doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but that two tenths of a mile is actually pretty significant. And the track actually kind of races like a short track, which I enjoy. The concrete makes the racing surface a little bit tough and unpredictable at times because it takes time. It takes the rubber down different — NASCAR preps the track, they put a PJ one resin-type deal down, so for a driver, we love that because we can choose if we want to run around the top lane or the bottom lane. With that extra grip, you can kind of move around it and go wherever you want. So I love going to Nashville. I’ve been fortunate enough to race their last two years in Cup. Just last year we blew up with 10 laps to go and that was really disappointing for us. We just want to make it through the whole race and I think we’ll have a good day.
And how about NASCAR’s first Chicago street race?
“I’m pumped for the Chicago race multiple reasons,” Bilicki declared. “For one, it’s, it’s not far from where I live in Wisconsin, so it technically is my closest home race in the Cup series this year. For two, it’s a road course and my background is road racing. And for three, it’s in my sponsor’s backyard. So it’s just a huge race weekend. It’s probably our biggest race weekend of the year. And you know, knowing that I have an advantage over some of these other drivers that have never raced this type of track, it’s really comforting for me to know that I go there and at least have some experience from my past career, which is sports car racing on road courses.
“The track is tough. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever driven a track this bumpy in my life — and I’ve never driven the track yet in real life. But just even on the simulator, it is insanely rough. And because of that you can’t push really hard because if you push really hard, you’re going to make mistakes and the cars are literally bouncing and leaving the ground. So you don’t have any tire contact. The harder you push, the faster you go over these bumps and the more air in the car gets and it just doesn’t stick. So I was shocked when I ran the track in the simulator for the first time, with just how bumpy it was. And you have to almost memorize where the bumps are. I mean I’ll literally drive around the bumps or just use extreme caution over the bumps.
“That’s going to be the toughest part about the race, because if you make a mistake or if you get sideways or spun out, there’s a lot of concrete walls and there is nowhere to go. There’s no runoff area, so if you made a mistake and miss your braking zone, you’re in the tire wall. If you make a mistake and spin out, you’re probably going to get hit by another car and cause a pile-up because there’s nowhere for that other car to go. So you know we want to run all the laps, but it’s a race where I think we can be really competitive at. I’d love a top-10 or a top-5 finish for our Zeigler Auto Group team. A win would be phenomenal — I mean, obviously that’d be a dream come true, right? But a top 10 for us there will be a win for our small team.”
Part-time Cup racing has challenges all its own, but Bilicki remains devoted to making the most of every opportunity. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images
Although he is now a seven-year veteran of the Cup Series with 90 Cup starts to his name, Bilicki has made his way in the sport as a part-time competitor. Participating in designated races according to sponsorship support and budget, the Wisconsin native is perennially in come-and-go mode. Asked about his place in the Cup garage and how the Cup teams and drivers regard him and his part-time approach, Bilicki with characteristic positivity.
“I think I’m pretty well respected in the garage for multiple reasons,” he said. “I don’t make a fool out of myself. I think we’re competitive. I mean, we got a really good mention on a pretty popular podcast last week within the NASCAR industry saying we were running great. So to hear stuff like that is pretty cool. I know that I can do it. I know I can race with these guys. Obviously, you’re limited by the equipment you’re in and as I said, we are good. You know, our team has a fast car and it is good, but everyone else is great. That’s what separates us.
“To go back to your first question, how is it coming and going? It’s really tough this year because these cars are so sensitive. The new chassis in the NASCAR Cup Series is unlike any other NASCAR stock car that’s ever been raced. It’s really tough to come and race two weekends and then have a month off. So I look at my schedule and after Chicago, I have one whole month off in the Cup series. Now, I’m lucky because I’ll have some Xfinity races in that time. However, the Xfinity cars and the Cup cars are so different. And for me to get in the Cup car and have a 20-minute practice session is really tough because it takes me 10 or 15 minutes to get back into the rhythm of a Cup car. And then you have five minutes left in practice and your tires are already worn out and the adjustments you’re making are working because the tires are going away… So that’s the toughest part.
“We don’t really get as many tools as some of the big teams. We don’t get a lot of simulator time. You’re basically showing up cold and you’re expected to go out there and run at 95% or 100% on lap one in practice, which is really, really tough to do. I’m obviously blessed to be in the Cup Series and I love it but yeah, man, it is tough to come and go sometimes.”
For all its challenges, Bilicki always come back to the fact that racing remains the central focus of his life.
“100%. Everything I do revolves around racing,” he said. “I mean, right after the phone call we are on, I’m literally going to the kart track and I’m going to just run laps by myself. That’s a great tool that I use to stay in shape physically and mentally. I just run laps. Everything I do, whether it’s working here in my home office, or making sure my spots are taken care of. We’re making sure we have enough budget to get to the racetrack. Or when I’m at home, you know, it all revolves around racing. I don’t have much of a personal life outside of racing because I’m so busy here and I’m so involved. Honestly, I don’t think I’d have it any other way.”
