With Strong Chili Bowl Ride, Bilicki ‘Having To Relearn’

Josh Bilicki in action at Tulsa (Okla.) Expo Raceway. (Hannah Weymier/Box3 Media photo)

TULSA, Okla. – Josh Bilicki is far from the most recognizable NASCAR regular competing in the 39th Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink, but he could get the award for being the most enthusiastic of the bunch.

Bilicki, 29, is making his third Chili Bowl appearance, driving the No. 40B Insurance King Spike Chassis for Chase McDermand Racing in easily his most competitive ride to date at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

McDermand is a three-time Badger Midget Auto Racing Ass’n champion and winner with USAC, POWRi, and the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series, so his equipment is among the upper echelon of teams inside the SageNet Center.

It’s a big deal, not because Bilicki is a veteran of 219 starts across NASCAR’s three national series, but because the Menominee Falls, Wis., native has a love for dirt racing and has committed himself to learning the ins and outs of what it takes to be successful on the biggest stage for the midget car discipline.

“It’s a pretty cool group that we’ve got here,” said Bilicki after Sunday’s practice day. “Being real, I know I’m not going to make the A-main on Saturday, so the expectations are just for me to keep learning, keep growing, and enjoy the moment, you know? This is … there’s no bigger race for these cars than the Chili Bowl, and the atmosphere here is unlike anything else in racing.

“Hopefully, we can keep all the parts and pieces on it, and we’ll see where we land at the end of it.”

Bilicki has made select starts with the Midwest Sprint Car Ass’n over the last two seasons to improve his dirt track craft, earning three top-10 finishes along the way at tracks like Plymouth (Wis.) Dirt Track and Angell Park Speedway in his home state of Wisconsin.

While the sprint car experience is something that Bilicki tipped does benefit him somewhat at the Chili Bowl, he added that Tulsa is “its own different animal” when it comes to racing on dirt.

“I definitely think it helps, but you do drive both cars way differently,” he explained. “The sprint car is a little bit more like an asphalt feel … where you’re tied down on the left front (tire) compared to here, where you’re driving off the right rear so much. That’s the biggest difference between the two, is how yawed out you are in (midgets) versus the winged sprint car. If you try to get the sprint car sideways, you’re going to be spinning around or flipped over.

“So, at least to me, it does help my comfort level, but not as much as you might think in terms of actual driving style.”

Josh Bilicki (Lesley Ann Miller/Toyota Racing photo)

These days, the Chili Bowl equates a bit more to NASCAR than in the past, considering that NASCAR now only allots 20 minutes of practice ahead of their race weekends and hot laps ahead of the Chili Bowl are sessions of four and three laps apiece on the Sunday preceding the event week.

That means it’s a sprint to gather information before you’re on the racetrack for the laps that truly matter, a format that Bilicki has gotten well used to from his time in the NASCAR garage area.

“A full day of practice here is seven laps, and the last time I drove a midget was here last year … so it has been over a year since I’ve been in one of these cars, and that was in a different car so it was quite a different experience,” Bilicki noted. “I’m in what I would consider a proper USAC midget now, with a good motor, a lot more power, and better brakes, so it’s completely different and I’m having to relearn what I need and knock off a lot of rust.

“I was the fifth group out (Sunday) morning and the fifth-to-last group out at the end of the day, so it was a question of whether I was tight because the track was greasy or because I wasn’t driving hard enough … and I think it ended up being a little bit of both,” he added. “I really tried to focus on getting down on the inside berm, but I couldn’t stay down on it, so I’ve got some things to work on.”

Many of Bilicki’s NASCAR partners have joined him for his Chili Bowl adventure, including Insurance King, an Illinois-based insurance agency that was his primary sponsor for three NASCAR Xfinity Series races last year. The scheme on Bilicki’s midget is the same as the one he ran in the Xfinity Series, no less.

He’ll race Monday night’s preliminary program, which features notables like two-time Chili Bowl champion Kyle Larson and three-time Monday winner Cannon McIntosh among the headliners.

What are the expectations for Bilicki in year three at the Chili Bowl?

“I would love to make the A-main on my prelim night; I think that is achievable,” he said. “I think that would be a win for us because it will set us up decent for Saturday if we can do that.”

Every lap of the 39th Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink can be viewed live through FloRacing, the official streaming partner of the Super Bowl of Midget Racing.

Monday night’s Chili Bowl program kicks off with hot laps at 5 p.m. ET, followed by heat races, qualifiers, D, C, and B-mains, and a 30-lap feature which locks the top two finishers into the Saturday finale.