Josh Bilicki returns to Road America with NASCAR to complete whirlwind year

RICHFIELD – The year Josh Bilicki was born, his father turned a 30-year-old Ford Mustang into a race car to drive in vintage events.

Josh’s grandfather attended the Indianapolis 500 annually and took his family to the Milwaukee Mile in its heyday.

Suffice it to say, Josh grew up in a family of racing enthusiasts. So he may have been the most excited kid on Christmas morning of 2000 when he woke and found a go-kart waiting in the garage.

But he was 4, right? Kids’ interests change.

Maybe not for Josh. His parents put him in tee-ball to try another sport.

“This is a true story: I ran around the bases and made race-car noises,” Josh said in a recent interview at his family’s home in Richfield.

“My mom tells the story, and it’s funny. But I’ve loved racing my entire life. It’s always been my passion. And when I got to 12 or 13, I got it in my mind, I want to make this my career.”

From that first kiddie kart, to more competitive divisions up to the top-end shifter karts capable of 135 mph, Josh Bilicki honed his skills, raced hard and won some while preparing to race sports cars professionally.

Then a year ago, his path took an abrupt turn.

Now he’s a full-fledged stock-car racer, intent on making it in NASCAR, marveling at the whirlwind the past 12 months have been — with his Xfinity debut, some oval experience and even two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup starts — and wondering how far the next 12 can take him.

The Johnsonville 180 on Sunday at Road America in Elkhart Lake will mark the one-year anniversary of his first NASCAR start.

RELATED: Road America weekend schedule

“He’s determined,” said Mike Bilicki, Josh’s father. “He wants to be a race-car driver as his profession. Would I have guessed it would have led more to sports cars? Probably.

“But with him, he just wants to drive anything. He raced snowmobiles (last) winter. He puts these deals together, and he’s in touch with a lot of different people and he has opportunities that will jump in his lap.

“This is a great turn as to where he’s going.”

Bilicki, 22, moved from karts to cars for the first time at age 14 and won the pole for his first SCCA Spec Miata race at Blackhawk Farms in South Beloit, Ill. It wasn’t long before he was outdriving older drivers with substantially larger budgets on the national level in the low-bucks all-Mazda production class.

Bilicki earned his pro license in 2015, but money was hard to find. He managed to race in just two IMSA events, cobbling together a schedule of SCCA races. He also filled his time as a driving coach, teaching well-heeled owners how to enjoy the performance of their Ferraris and Porsches safely.

Then Bilicki leapt almost blindly into NASCAR last August.

“I thought just for the heck of it, let’s look at the entry list and just see if there are any teams looking for drivers,” said Bilicki, who was supposed to race in another division that weekend, but the car wasn’t ready. “Obaika Racing under both of their cars had ‘to be announced.’ ”

Obaika Racing was a small team that took in drivers with limited budgets and expectations to match who were eager for experience and opportunity. Bilicki was one of its 11 drivers last year.

“I went on Facebook because I couldn’t find any of their information, found their Facebook page, shot them a message and almost five minutes later they commented back and said, ‘We’re interested,’ ” Bilick said.

Although he wouldn’t drive a NASCAR car before practice, he likely would have more experience on the challenging 4-mile track — hundreds of laps, if not a thousand, in karts, Spec Miata races and as a coach — than anyone else in the field. Bilicki called the team Monday of race week and by Wednesday had his NASCAR license and a sponsor lined up.

Brake failures in practice and qualifying contributed to a spectacular weekend — not always in a good way — but Bilicki made the car look better than it usually had. Then during the race, an electrical problem drained the battery and knocked Bilicki out after six laps.

While the outcome was a devastating disappointment, the experience did qualify Bilicki to race on the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway, and he put together a deal.

Before then Bilicki’s oval-track experience consisted of four sportsman-class races at Jefferson Speedway in 2012.

“The last race, the engine blew up, we got spun out and totaled the car,” he said. “Jefferson’s a fun track … but it’s a completely different type of car and track than the NASCAR circuit.

“I basically started fresh last year when I started racing ovals with almost no knowledge of how to race ovals.”

The Phoenix experience allowed Bilicki to race on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway, which led to the 2-mile Michigan oval this year. He has run six Xfinity races in all, as well as two Cup races, in some cases building on relationships made while coaching to generate sponsorship.

All of Bilicki’s starts have come with back-of-the grid teams, and the finishes have been predictable even if performance often has been better. His best has been 27th at Michigan driving for Carl Long.

This week he’s back with B.J. McLeod Motorsports, the team for which he raced Xfinity events at Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen.

“I think a ‘win’ would definitely be a top-15 or a top-10,” Bilicki said. “Going to Road America, it helps because we’ve been with B.J. McLeod Motorsports for two races with the team, the crew chief (George Ingram) knows how I drive.

“I would say a win would be just having a good race in front of our hometown crowd.”

Regardless of what happens at Road America, Bilicki isn’t completely sure what comes next.

To a large degree, sponsorship will dictate. Money has been easier to find to compete in NASCAR than in sports cars, Bilicki has found, but it’s still a tough hunt.

A low seven-figure package ought to get him a full season in the Xfinity Series with a smaller team. A front-runner could cost him more than five times as much.

Bilicki is modest in his goals and measured in his steps. Jumping into a top car isn’t in the cards, and he doesn’t believe that necessarily would be in his best interest.

“Any racer will tell you, they don’t want to just race for 20th, they want to go out there and win,” Bilicki said. “But for me to get to that point, we need to get more seat time before we can get in equipment that’s capable of winning.”

He has never banged fenders while in a four-wheel slide on the half-mile in Bristol, Tenn., or held the throttle wide open in a 40-car pack at 200 mph at Daytona.

“I don’t want to get in a Penske car right now on an oval and be a laughingstock because I’m only running 20th,” Bilicki said. “I would rather run in a mid-pack car, learn how to drive a mid-pack car.

“It’s going to take another year of experience, running all the ovals … and after that, then we can start competing hopefully for better teams if we can find the sponsorship and actually competing for the win.”

This might be the rare case in the last 17½ years when it’s OK for Bilicki to go slow.