Lately, the 2026 season has promised to look like a turning point. The reshuffling of teams and sponsors has already shaken up the garage. In that climate of uncertainty, teams that show stability, or are willing to bet on grit and persistence, stand out more than ever. SS GreenLight Racing is one such team, and the latest news from them feels like a quiet breath of fresh air.

Josh Bilicki finally gets his full-time shot

The small Chevrolet team, which has a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, has just locked in Josh Bilicki to run the full 2026 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule in the No. 07.

Josh Bilicki has been the definition of a road warrior for almost ten years. Born in 1995 in Wisconsin, he’s bounced around Cup, Xfinity, and even a few Truck races, piecing together part-time rides with whoever would give him a helmet and a steering wheel. He’s started over a hundred national series races, learned every trick in the book about stretching a dollar and saving tires, and never once had the luxury of knowing he’d be at the track every single weekend. That all changes in 2026.

SS GreenLight Racing, a team that’s been grinding away since 2001 under owner Bobby Dotter, looked at the chaos around them, teams closing, seats disappearing, manufacturers scrambling, and decided to go the other way.

They handed the keys to the No. 07 Chevrolet to Bilicki for the full season. In a year when full-time rides are turning into part-time cameos or simply vanishing, this is the kind of old-school commitment that feels almost radical.

Bilicki didn’t try to hide how much it meant.

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to drive for SS GreenLight Racing full time in 2026 in the newly branded NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series,” he said in the announcement. “Having the opportunity to be at the track every weekend creates the consistency needed to move this No. 07 team forward… I’m excited for that challenge.”

You can practically hear the smile. After years of wondering if the phone would ring for the next race, he finally gets to unpack the suitcase and just race.

For SS GreenLight, it’s a statement too. They’ve never had the biggest budget or the shiniest equipment, but they’ve stuck around by being tough and resourceful. Wins are rare, but they’ve pulled off some surprises over the years.

Giving Bilicki a full year is their way of saying they still believe a small team with a hungry driver can climb the ladder the old-fashioned way: show up every week, learn the car, get a little better every race. In a series that’s losing cars faster than it’s gaining them, one underdog just planted its flag and said we’re not going anywhere.

While SS GreenLight puts its money on a thirty-year-old veteran finally getting his big break, Joe Gibbs Racing is betting on the exact opposite.

Seventeen-year-old Brent Crews is the other end of the same story

Seventeen-year-old Toyota development driver Brent Crews will run the No. 19 Toyota for 29 of the 33 races in 2026. He’ll have to sit out four events because he’s still too young for certain tracks, but NASCAR allows playoff waivers for exactly that situation.

Crews has already proven the speed is real: ten Truck starts this year, two top fives, three top tens, over a hundred laps led, and a second-place finish at the Charlotte Roval. Add six ARCA wins across the East and West series, and it’s easy to see why JGR wanted to lock him up early.

The No. 19 won the owner’s championship in 2025 with a rotating cast of Cup stars, but now it’s Brent Crews’ turn to grow into the ride. One team gives a journeyman his first full-time chance because experience and consistency still count.

Another team hands a teenager twenty-nine starts because raw talent still counts. Same series, same season, two completely different paths that somehow land in the exact same place: drivers who just want to race every weekend. In a year full of closed doors, both stories feel like a reminder that the ladder might be wobbly, but it’s still there if you’re willing to climb.