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NASCAR Xfinity Series driver #5: Kris Wright, Our Motorsports, First National Bank, Corp. Chevrolet at Circuit of the Americas
(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Eyes on Xfinity: The Bizarre Beef Between Josh Bilicki & Kris Wright

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Perhaps the greatest feud in all of NASCAR right now is one that has been brewing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series since the season’s start.

I’ve given a lot of love and attention to the top teams the past few weeks, but there’s so many storylines to look at when it comes to mid-pack teams in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Jordan Anderson Racing and AM Racing are off to great starts to the season, with drivers in the top 10 in points. On the other end of the spectrum, Alpha Prime Racing and Cope Family Racing both saw setbacks in the form of DNQ’s that stifled their early season momentum. 

Those storylines, and even the battle of Connor Zilisch and Carson Kvapil, have been put on the backburner. Why? Because we have beef in the Xfinity garage between Josh Bilicki and Kris Wright. And boy, has it evolved quickly.

It started at Daytona International Speedway as Bilicki and others were coming down for green flag pit stops. Wright rushed into the pack with a full head of steam and bowled into Bilicki with what initially appeared to be a brake failure.

“We got Kris Wright-ed,” was said on the Bilicki radio after the incident.

It ended Wright’s day, but Bilicki was able to salvage a 14th-place finish for DGM Racing with Jesse Iwuji Motorsports. Wright told Frontstretch and others at the time that it not a mechanical failure but rather a matter of miscommunication on when to pit.

“We had some miscommunication coming to pit road and wanted to get off track a little sooner than we did,” Wright said. “We had a little brake issue on that second stop, so we tried to get off track a little sooner. A two-second lull in communication is two football fields out there.” 

A lot of people, even The CW broadcast team, were puzzled by the incident and the answer, but it sounded like Kris was willing to talk things out.

“I will, 100%,” Wright said when asked if he’d talk to Bilicki.

What did Bilicki say when the same question was posed to him?

“No. … No real comment,” Bilicki told Frontstretch. 

Fast forward to Atlanta Motor Speedway when Bilicki and Wright made contact behind a last-lap pileup on the backstretch while racing for a spot outside the top 20. A bunch of free points went out the window for two drivers that, as Circuit of the Americas qualifying proved, could be pivotal down the line.

Not a peep from either of them about it. On to COTA, where Bilicki picked up a pit road speeding penalty during the final stage break caution and had to go all the way to the back. 

Somewhere between the restart and 18 laps to go — not sure when, which leads to a part of this whole deal later — Wright spun in front of Bilicki. As a result, Bilicki lost time and Wright eventually fell a lap down, and they finished the race in 22nd and 33rd, respectively.

After finishing 22nd in a race he thought he could do much better in given his road racing background, Bilicki went on X (formerly Twitter) to let off some steam on Saturday night (March 1).

“Really fast car, not much to show for it,” Bilicki said in the post. “… We were charging forward until the 5 car [Wright] spun right in front of us and got into me … again … costing us about 25 seconds. Never got the caution we needed to recover fully.”

Wright, after pointing out he was getting the blame for something there’s no video of, responded.

“Got loose outside of you, and you finished me off,” Wright replied with.

Bilicki then did his best to give play-by-play from his perspective. He also decided to get his digs in on Wright’s career and tells him to “go back to being a gentleman driver in IMSA where you can race doctors and dentists in LMP3.”

Flash forward to Sunday night (March 2), and it was Wright’s turn to say his piece. Wright, who less than 24 hours earlier complained about taking blame for something nobody saw, posted still frames of the Atlanta crash to say Bilicki ran into him. 

“Hey @joshbilicki, I was gonna let it go, but you brought up Atlanta, and it was you who actually wrecked us, so thank you,” Wright posted. “[You] Ran out of talent and couldn’t hold a line.”

Wright posted quite a bit more after that, mainly in replies to people questioning his moves or his perspective. Most of the replies were eventually deleted.

The next day, Kris tweeted that the “SMT data” doesn’t lie. His brother, Kevin Wright, posted a video he said proved Bilicki is responsible for the wrecks at Atlanta and COTA. That post was deleted as well.

Bilicki got his final word in by saying that SMT data isn’t used in the Xfinity Series, only Cup; Xfinity uses a GPS system that isn’t nearly as accurate. He also said he’s over it and ready to focus on the next weekend.

Meanwhile, Kevin Wright kept tweeting the videos and replies with them to a lot of posts. At one point he claimed both wrecks as retaliation. 

For now, the war on words looks to be over, as Bilicki and Kris Wright last posted on X about the incident on Monday (March 3) afternoon. But when and where will the next chapter in this feud be written, if there is one? Probably not at Phoenix Raceway this coming weekend, but with three separate incidents in the first three races of the season, the two drivers will be ones to keep an eye on for the next couple of weeks.

James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.