Brodie Kostecki’s NASCAR Cup Series debut today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been two years in the making, the man himself has explained.
The 25-year-old will tackle The Brickyard’s road course in a MobileX-backed Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, on the same weekend that fellow Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen makes his second Cup Series start after a sensational debut win in Chicago last month.
Speculation about Kostecki making a trip to the United States to race grew in May when his Supercars team boss, Erebus Motorsport’s Barry Ryan, revealed that members of the squad would be visiting RCR on a fact-finding mission.
That was before van Gisbergen stunned on the streets of the Windy City, but not before Kostecki’s NASCAR ambitions had kicked off.
“We’ve been working on this for about two years now with everyone at RCR,” he explained.
“We sort of looked at the calendar, and my options for doing a race were quite limited on the fact that back home we race as well, so there were only a few races that weren’t conflicting.
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“One was Chicago and the other one was Indy. With how RCR performed here last year, we circled that on the calendar quite a while ago.
“Obviously, what Shane did at Chicago was quite amazing, but I think it’s very different circumstances here this weekend.”
While van Gisbergen now has one foot– at least – out the door of Supercars and into NASCAR, Kostecki maintains that he is not necessarily ready for a career switch just yet.
“I just want to see how this weekend sort of plays out,” said the West Australian.
“Just see what opportunities come up, if they do after this weekend.
“I sort of live one day at a time, so we’ll see what happens.”
Whatever does happen in the longer term, it is an ironic turn of events for the current Repco Supercars Championship leader given he raced in stock cars in the United States during his teens, before returning home in 2017.
“I spent around four to five years in America,” noted Kostecki.
“I came over in 2012, I believe, and raced NASCAR late models, raced in the K&N East series, so it’s funny how the world works, and it’s come around full circle.
“I went back home and competed in Australian Supercars Championship, and leading up to this moment, to get this opportunity with everyone at RCR, and Richard [Childress], to get my Cup debut.
“I guess it’s sort of done full circle which is pretty cool.”
Kostecki was 11th-fastest in qualifying despite not testing and then missing most of his only practice session due to a technical problem for the #33 Chevrolet.
He will start at the back, however, having blotted his copybook with a crash late in his qualifying group, while van Gisbergen is set to take the green flag from the eighth row of the grid.
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