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Supercars championship leader Brodie Kostecki has drawn interest from NASCAR teams that could lead to drives in America later this year.
After extending his title advantage with a fighting fourth in Saturday’s first race of the Darwin Triple Crown, Kostecki revealed that his recent visit to a NASCAR Cup Series event opened potential doors for race invitations.
“I got to meet some really cool people … and, yeah, might be able to do a race here or there maybe later in the year,” the Coca-Cola Racing star told Speedcafe. “I’ve talked to a lot of people over there and we’ll just see what comes up.”
While Kostecki confirmed he was actively exploring NASCAR starts, he emphasised his desire to expand his repertoire in the States was secondary to winning the Supercars crown for Erebus Motorsport.
“Yeah, I’m trying to [arrange some drives],” he said. “We’ll just see how it all plays out.
“I don’t want it to interfere with anything that’s going on here. This is my main priority. We’re doing a great job this year, so that’s my focus.”
Logically, although his introduction to racing was on ovals in America, Kostecki’s Supercars experience would suggest interest for an appearance or appearances in the NASCAR Cup – or the second-level Xfinity Series – would be for road course events.
But he is open to oval races as well.
“I wouldn’t mind doing either,” Kostecki declared. “Be cool to just get a shot. So we’ll see if the stars align and see what we can come up with.”
He and Coke Racing team-mate Will Brown were part of an Erebus group that attended the NASCAR Cup Series at Gateway International Raceway near St Louis two weeks ago as guests of leading NCS team Richard Childress Racing.
The trip included a visit to RCR’s race shop near Charlotte, North Carolina.
RCR is front-running operation, headed on the track by NCS star Kyle Busch.
Erebus has connections with RCR through Aussie engineer Andrew Dickinson, who runs Busch.
As well as scoping out his future guest race opportunities, Kostecki thinks the exercise will help Erebus’s upset championship challenge, with team boss Barry Ryan and their race engineers learning refined methods.
“It was a great experience,” he reported. “I got to meet some really cool people and I got to hang out with RCR, and Kyle Busch and his team, which was awesome
“Just got to experience a bit of a different life over there and, hopefully, we can learn a few things over there and bring it back here.”
Kostecki joins defending Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen with an interest – and opportunity – to race in NASCAR.
Van Gisbergen will contest NASCAR’s first ever street race in Chicago early next month.
Like SVG, Kostecki is a versatile racer who rejoices in racing anything often, with his American stock car oval racing experience an added attraction.
Of course, the Erebus NASCAR trip could also have been an entrée for multi-talented Will Brown, second in the Supercars standings with more wins than the consistently front-running Kostecki, to make future NASCAR road race cameos…
