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Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki has earmarked plans to make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in 2023.
The revelation comes off the back of a recent trip to the United States where he attended the Indianapolis 500 and the NASCAR Cup Series’ first visit to World Wide Technology Raceway (also known as Gateway Motorsports Park).
Kostecki is no stranger to NASCAR, having competed in what is now known as the ARCA Menards Series East during his formative years before returning home to pursue a career in Supercars.
Joined by manager Nathan Cayzer, the trip offered Kostecki a chance to get the lay of the land in the NASCAR circles and see what opportunities might be forthcoming alongside his Supercars schedule.
“I’m looking at a few different options,” Kostecki told Speedcafe.com.
“I sort of need to wait out until all those schedules come out so you know what sort of stars align and what’s actually possible first.
“That’ll be the first hurdle, but I sort of have to jump over and hopefully do an Xfinity race or a Cup Series race here or there. I just need to see what lines up and go from there.
“I’d like to do a few races over there next year. I want to do some more racing in general, to be honest. I’m a racer at heart and I just want to drive anything.
“We only have 12 or 13 rounds on our [Supercars] calendar. I want to try fill up almost every second week as much as possible with racing, whether it be in my sprint car [or otherwise]. I’m really looking forward to jumping back in that when the season starts back up in Toowoomba.
“I want to spread my wings a bit and just try race as much as possible. I absolutely love my Supercar racing, I just want to try race as much as possible.”
In any case, road course races would be the most likely domain for Kostecki.
In recent years, NASCAR has increased its road course count in the Cup Series, adding Road America, Circuit of the Americas, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course layout to the mix alongside established races at Watkins Glen, Sonoma, and the Charlotte Roval.
“I want to go there and try to do a few road courses and just have some fun,” the Perth-born pilot said.
“I’m a big fan of high horsepower cars and low downforce, the bigger car and the more power, it’s more attractive to me.
“I haven’t been the biggest fan of GT-style racing; Supercars and NASCAR are actually very alike in some ways, and especially now since I have a new car as well.”
While the natural progression on the NASCAR ladder is usually from the Camping World Truck Series to the Xfinity Series and then into the Cup Series, stepping straight to the top rung might be the easier option.
That’s largely down to the all-new ‘Next Gen’ car that Kostecki alluded to, which has some similarities to the incumbent Gen2 car in Supercars.
“They’re actually very similar to these style of cars with independent rear suspension and actually looks awfully similar to a Supercar in a way,” said the 24-year-old.
“It runs the Xtrac-style rear end. It’s a five-speed and not a six-speed, so that’s a little bit strange. The new cars are pretty cool.
“I was a bit unsure if I would like the sound in person compared to the old cars, but they sound pretty unreal. It was pretty cool to watch all that in action. They’ve had some great success with the new car. Hopefully our new [Gen3] car brings the same success for us.”
The trip also allowed Kostecki a chance to catch up with former rivals, some of whom have made it to the Cup Series.
“I got to catch up with a few old friends,” said Kostecki.
“It was pretty cool to see Corey LaJoie, he actually helped me out when I was racing [in the United States]. He was on my headset for a couple of races.
“It was good to catch up with him and a few other guys; Cole Custer I used to race against him when I was younger, as well. So yeah, it was good to have a chat to some of them guys.
“Probably one of my closest friends over there, Josh Berry, he’s racing for Dale [Earnhardt] Jnr over there and he’s having a great season so far.
“It was good to catch up with some good mates from over there and it was good to see what’s happened after I’d come back to Australia, their sort of a progression through.
“It was good to just exchange the differences between the two sports was. It was pretty cool.”
This weekend Kostecki will contest the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway with Erebus Motorsport.
Kostecki occupies eighth in the drivers’ championship ahead of team-mate Will Brown who sits 15th.
