Rockford is off to the races | Josh Bilicki’s Chevy gets Rockford branding for NASCAR event

April 7, 2025|By Kevin Haas|In Top Stories, Sports, Featured, Rock River Current, 815 News, Local, Rockford

NASCAR driver Josh Bilicki gets into his car on Monday, April 7, 2025, on North Main Street in downtown Rockford after an announcement for a new paint scheme that will be Rockford branded. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our mobile app

ROCKFORD — If you think people in Rockford drive fast, wait and see how fast Josh Bilicki drives with GoRockford on the side of his car.

The NASCAR driver will race in a new paint scheme later this month branded with GoRockford’s logo and other recognizable Rockford images. His No. 91 Chevy is getting its new look thanks to Rockford-based Insurance King, a longtime sponsor of Bilicki.

The Rockford-branded car will make its debut Saturday, April 19 when NASCAR returns to Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina for the first time in more than a decade. Dan Block, the owner of Insurance King, and Bilicki thought it was a fitting tie-in given that the circle track is known as “The Rock.”

“Dan’s game to try anything, even having the cars we’ve designed now part of video games people play,” Bilicki said. “He also likes to give back to his hometown of Rockford, so the newly designed car is perfect for that.”

Bilicki, Block and members of the GoRockford team held a news conference Monday to announces the new branding. It was held at the GoRockford offices at North Main and West State streets, and Bilicki revved up a retired No. 91 Chevy on the streets in front of the offices and signed a few autographs after the announcement.

The design incorporates GoRockford’s logo and brand colors, as well as illustrations of The Rock Guardians of Rockford, which are the stone statues by Terese Agnew along the Rock River Recreation Path. There is also an image of Symbol by Alexander Liberman on the front fender, the Rockford Peaches logo on the C-post area and a sock monkey on the rear bumper.

Dan Block, owner of Rockford-based Insurance King, shows off future racing hero cards for Josh Bilicki’s No. 91 car on Monday, April 7, 2025, during a news conference at GoRockford’s offices. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

Other Rockford connections on the car include the logos for Rock’n Vodka and Haas Towing.

Block said he wasn’t a fan of NASCAR before sponsoring Bilicki in 2019, but that has changed and he’s seen fantastic exposure for Insurance King from the races.

“The relationship has expanded every year,” Block said. “Now NASCAR fans watch for our car designs and posts on Facebook, so we decided to use the race car during the Rockingham race to promote my hometown of Rockford.”

Insurance King was founded in 2001 and has offices in 15 states. Block anticipates expanding into six more states before the end of the year.

Fans have taken note of how often the paint scheme switches up for Bilicki’s No. 91, Block and Bilicki said.

“Most of the sponsors that are in NASCAR have the same paint scheme every single race,” Bilicki said. “To some fans, they like that, but to other fans you get kind of sick of seeing the same thing. We’ve had 50 race primary sponsorships and probably 40 of them had different paint schemes.”

NASCAR has plenty of ties to Rockford, the hometown of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Chad Knaus and multiple other racers and crews that got their starts at the Rockford Speedway.

Josh Bilicki answers questions from reporters on Monday, April 7, 2025, after unveiling the new Rockford-branded paint scheme for his No. 91 Chevy at a news conference at GoRockford’s offices. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

Bilicki, who was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, about 100 miles north of Rockford, said he considers the Midwest his hometown. He raced at the Rockford Speedway once in 2022, winning his heat before being involved in a multiple-car crash.

For GoRockford, the branding is a chance to get national exposure that it hopes ultimately leads to visitation here. John Groh, president and CEO of GoRockford, said the partnership with Block started when he got a call from Chris Wachowiak of Ronin Branding, who was pitching an idea for marketing Rockford in a way never done before.

“When Dan asked us to partner, we knew it would be a chance to drive awareness of Rockford on a national level,” Groh said. “The Rockford brand, graphics and gorockford.com web address provide exposure for our city and is a perfect fit with Rockford’s historic ties to NASCAR and racing.”

Josh Bilicki No. 91 car — Josh Bilicki’s No. 91 Chevy will be Rockford branded for the Xfinity Series race on April 19, 2025, at Rockingham Speedway. (Image provided)

There is a bit of irony that comes with the branding. Sometimes, the highest exposure can come from crashes, when video replays fill motorsports broadcasts, Bilicki said.

“We would rather win the race and get exposure that way,” he said.