Josh Bilicki moving full speed ahead with a mission NASCAR fans can't ignore

Movember, the world’s leading charity changing the face of men’s health, has once again partnered with NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Josh Bilicki, in a deal that is set to see the brand on Bilicki's No. 07 SS-Green Light Racing Chevrolet as its primary sponsor this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The organization’s iconic mustache and men’s health message are back on the NASCAR stage, with the renewed partnership set to run from now until the end of the season. The relationship first came about when Bilicki saw an opportunity and capitalized a year ago.

"It actually came together last year, about a year ago, at the championship race last year at Phoenix. Movember was featured on our car," Bilicki told Beyond the Flag. "It’s something where I had seen the Movember name, I had seen the mustache for several years, for 10 years, I guess, I had kind of seen the name and seen the brand.

"I reached out to Tim [Gnaneswaran], who is their American president over here and runs Movember USA. And as somebody who manages a lot of my own sponsorship deals, something just clicked, and I’m like, you know, I think that this is probably a good fit for the NASCAR industry."

By making a donation to Movember, supporters had a chance to put their name on Bilicki's car and join the movement to fund vital research for mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.

A movement that cannot be ignored

Bilicki believes it's the perfect opportunity to bring attention to an often overlooked aspect of NASCAR and the broader racing world: men's health.

"The NASCAR industry is a male-driven industry, obviously," he said. "And there are a lot of people who probably know what Movember is, they probably recognize a logo, but they probably don’t really know what Movember is.

"It’s something I feel like the NASCAR industry could definitely benefit from."

Bilicki spoke about the importance of helping to advance Movember's mission, and he spoke from his own experience as a NASCAR driver of just how vital that message is.

"Movember’s the world’s leading nonprofit that’s focused on men’s health," he said. "NASCAR is a male-driven industry, and there are a lot of people I feel like honestly probably do struggle in the NASCAR industry."

Advancing the mission, spreading the message

Part of his own mission is helping fans to understand that NASCAR isn't always necessarily how the public views it or how the media paints it.

"There’s a lot of time away from your family, your friends," he said. "You’re on the road a lot. Sometimes you’re in hotel rooms by yourself at night, and it just gets kind of lonely. Everybody sees the glamorous part of NASCAR, and even being a driver, they see, oh, it’s just all glory, and it’s all glamorous; we’re going to Vegas this weekend. But that’s not always the case.

"There’s just a lot of alone time, a lot of time where you’re just kind of by yourself, and there’s a lot of people in the industry who probably get down, and we just want to show that Movember is there to support them. Cool stat: since 2003, they’ve raised over $1 billion for the men’s health industry. That’s a lot of money. Really cool just to be a really small part of that and bring this to light."

While there’s no direct association between the two sponsors, the return of Movember comes about at Las Vegas, where the title sponsor of Saturday night's O'Reilly Series race happens to be Focused Health.

"It is really ironic," Bilicki said. "When I reached out to the Movember team about doing this at Vegas, I didn’t even put two and two together, honestly. It’s just kind of right place, right time."

The coincidence should provide both organizations an added opportunity to put health messaging in front of NASCAR fans this weekend.

"We’ll definitely have a lot of activation at the track this weekend," Bilicki added. "It’s going to be fun to see how the Focused Health people, if they’re at the track, how they kind of coordinate with the Movember people. It’s going to be pretty fun for sure."

Josh Bilicki speeding ahead, hopes to end 2026 on a high note

From the racing side of things, Bilicki is in his first full season in a single series since running the 2021 Cup Series schedule with Rick Ware Racing. He is the first full-time driver of SS-Green Light Racing's No. 07 Chevrolet since Ray Black Jr. in 2019 and their first in any car since Joe Graf Jr. in 2020.

Although his past part-time deals have still produced a very full schedule across the board, he's embracing the opportunity to compete in one car on a regular basis.

"It’s really nice in a couple of ways," he said of having a full-time deal. "It’s nice to build consistency with one single race team.

"Last year, the last couple years, I haven’t been full-time in one series, but I was definitely a full-time racer, racing between the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Trucks. Ran a sports car program last year, which we won. We won at Daytona. That was 10 race weekends alone, and I ran a dirt sprint car. So I still ran almost 50 races last year, and same in 2024, but they were just pieced together.

"I wasn’t in the Xfinity Series every single week. I wasn’t in the Cup car every week. To have one series where I am full-time this year, it’s just really nice to build consistency."

As the team's first full-time driver in six seasons, he believes that he and the team are both making meaningful steps forward together.

"With the No. 07 group, I felt like last year maybe it was a little bit of a struggle for them," he noted. "I feel like we’ve improved on that this year. We always want to keep getting better. There have been races this year where I think we surprised ourselves, and there have been races where we’ve surprised ourselves in a bad way.

"It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster as far as our on-track performance, but it is nice to be at the track every single weekend. It’s nice to know where I’m going to race. It’s nice to know I’m going to have a paycheck every single week. I have a family, so that’s important too."

Of course, the full-time O'Reilly Series deal hasn't kept him from running the Cup car for Carl Long's Garage 66 (formerly MBM Motorsports) from time to time, just as he did in 2024 and 2025.

And while the No. 66 team often gets overlooked as a non-chartered (open) team that generally lacks speed compared to NASCAR's full-time entries, Bilicki has punched above his weight more often than not, finishing as high as 21st in 13 starts.

"There are a lot of people who look at that No. 66 program, people in the industry who know how much of a struggle it is to be a small, small Cup team. I mean, you’re talking about a team with less than 10 employees going out there and racing and being on the same straightaway at Bristol and Richmond. That’s a big feat for us, just to stay with the pack, honestly."

That he can do that with a team that simply does not have the resources of even NASCAR's smallest full-time organizations is a statement he's hoping won't be easy to ignore.

"For me, it’s important to still keep my name relevant on Sundays," he said without hesitation. "I still want to race in the Cup Series. I’m 31 years old. I don’t feel like I’m timing out yet, but obviously there are 18-, 19-year-olds now who are getting looked at.

"Brent Crews, as an example. He’s racing for Joe Gibbs. He’s already getting looked at for Cup Series rides. I don’t think that I’m old, but I’m a veteran. But, yeah, it’s just so hard because the Cup Series is so competitive now. It’s very elite. When I was full-time in the Cup Series in 2020-ish, 2021, there were about 10 smaller teams that we were racing against every single weekend.

"And now there are really no small teams in the Cup Series other than Garage 66. Occasionally, you get the No. 44 or the No. 50 car showing up. I don’t know if I even consider Rick Ware Racing to be a small team. They are, but they have an RCR alliance. It’s just important for me to stay relevant in Cup."

Looking ahead

Bilicki is working on getting back into the Cup car at some point between now and the end of the 2026 season, even though nothing is lined up yet.

"We’re working on some stuff," he said. "As you know, it takes dollars. There are a few open races that I would love to run that I think maybe we will put one or two together. I want to race more in Cup. I think there’s an opportunity for me to race a lot of races in Cup next year, and I think that we’re very well down that path."

What is already lined up, however, is a Daytona 500 entry for February 2027. He has only ever run the "Great American Race" once, that coming with Rick Ware Racing in 2021.

"We have the Daytona 500. We’re an open car, but we’re going to go to the 500 next year. So that’s pretty cool for me to have a 500 plan."

Garage 66 notably ended a lengthy Daytona 500 drought this year when they successfully qualified for the race for the first time since 2020. Bilicki certainly hopes to keep the momentum going, but for now, he's focused on wrapping up the 2026 O'Reilly Series season on a high note.

"I still enjoy my time on Saturdays too. And obviously we need to finish out the year strong on Saturdays this year, and we’re going to Vegas this weekend, where we had a decent run in spring. So now it’s about how do we get better? How do we capitalize on what we learned earlier in the year and get better this weekend?"

Bilicki finished 23rd at Las Vegas back in March. He has recorded seven top 20 finishes this season and sits 25th in the standings.

The only NASCAR national series in which he has not competed in 2026 is the Craftsman Truck Series, after a year in which he recorded finishes of seventh and sixth in his two Truck starts for Niece Motorsports, his first two starts in the series since 2023. The finishes were the best two finishes of his NASCAR career.

He would love to get back to the Truck Series too, but he doesn't expect that to factor into his plans as much as the other two.

"If it comes along and it’s something where I feel like it’s just like an easy, easy move, then obviously, yes, I would love to take that, especially if it’s a competitive organization like Niece Motorsports," he said.

"It all boils down to sponsorship dollars. I’ve been blessed this year to where when I drive in the Cup Series and when I drive on Saturdays in O’Reilly, the teams are giving me some sponsorship dollars of their own, pairing them with mine. We’re able to make it go pretty far.

"But it seems like in the Truck Series, I’m kind of on the hook for 100% of the sponsorship dollars, that if I want to run a race, I need to bring all the sponsorship dollars, and that’s just a little bit harder.

"I’m a one-man band at the end of the day. I manage my own career. I manage all my own sponsorship deals. So, when I have a team that’s offering to help and pick up some of the sponsorship, that’s really, really helpful. So, in the Truck Series, I just unfortunately don’t have that."

And it's one of the biggest reasons why he doesn't take the opportunity to partner with a group like Movember for granted.

"We were able to put together a pretty cool deal last year for the Phoenix race. Excited to expand that to race this year in Las Vegas. They’re mostly on the West Coast, so it’s cool that we’re going to have most of them with us this weekend at Vegas."

Live coverage of the Focused Health 302 is set to be provided by the CW Network from Las Vegas Motor Speedway beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, October 3. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!

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