Shop
Brodie Kostecki is in no rush to follow Shane van Gisbergen in making his oval debut in a NASCAR.
Both Antipodeans contested the recent Cup Series race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, two days after the latter was also in action in the Trucks Series at nearby Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Kostecki, in fact, has oval experience below NASCAR national series level, having cut his teeth in the K&N Pro Series before returning to Australia to race in the Dunlop Super2 Series.
He therefore described his drive with Richard Childress Racing at The Brickyard as going “full circle,” although he is keen for more road courses before tackling almost-circular tracks.
“Road course,” the West Australian told Speedcafe when asked what type of NASCAR racing he would like to partake in next.
On a desire to race on an oval, Kostecki replied, “One day, but I think I’d like to do a few more road courses first.”
The Supercars Championship leader qualified 11th-fastest after no testing other than a simulator and virtually no practice time due to a technical problem for the #33 MobileX Chevrolet.
However, he would be sent to the rear of the grid after Richard Childress Racing was forced to revert to a back-up chassis as a result of a prang late in his qualifying group, before clawing back 16 positions to finish 22nd.
“I expected sort of top 15; top 10 pace would have been cool and I think we had it; we just obviously started on the backfoot with qualifying and the race going green for majority of the race,” he recounted Kostecki.
“We made a strategy call hoping for a yellow; it didn’t quite work out.
“But, it sort of lived up to my expectations and it is what it is.”
He added, “I expected everyone to be quite good here, from the Cup side, and they were.
“Everyone did a great job on the #33 MobileX Chevy. It was a great experience and hopefully [I] get to do it again.”
Since the Indy event, Triple Eight Race Engineering has confirmed that van Gisbergen is leaving Supercars at season’s end, with his replacement being Kostecki’s current team-mate, Will Brown.
Meanwhile, van Gisbergen has locked in another extra-curricular activity, this time in his native New Zealand.
He will race in Round 1 of the South Island Endurance Series, sharing a Brabham BT62 with Dwayne Carter on September 9-10 at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch.
That makes for at least three weekends in a row in competition for SVG, with the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on September 15-17 and then another New Zealand Rally Championship start in the Daybreaker Rally on September 22-23.
The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship resumes this weekend with the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend.
Additional reporting: Christopher DeHarde
