Does it take the shine off his achievements aboard Chevrolet Camaros over the last two years, including his sensational Bathurst 1000 pole and victory in 2024?
It was a question being bandied about the Bathurst paddock on Saturday, but not one in which Kostecki was in any mood to engage during the post-Shootout press conference.
When tackled on the subject, Kostecki said he’d already spoken about the matter on his own podcast, before wandering into unexpected areas.
“I had a chicken sandwich for lunch, and I reckon they went a bit too heavy on the aioli. So, I might tune it up for tomorrow,” he said.
The bizarre response was fitting amid the wildness of a Bathurst Saturday in which DJR both won and lost.
Kostecki’s on-track brilliance ensured the team scored pole position, but a protest – lodged against Supercars itself over the parity saga – fell flat.
‘Politics over parity’: DJR responds to Bathurst protest dismissal
Sunday’s big unknown is whether the Mustangs that locked out the front two rows of the grid will be competitive in race trim, given their reported 1-2km/h straightline speed deficit.
Kostecki declared Friday that a lack of action following Supercars’ engine study that showed the Ford is at a disadvantage at altitude is “going to make it incredibly difficult” in the race.
“We’ll just let tomorrow play out and see and go from there,” was all he would offer on his race chances following the Shootout.
Second-placed qualifier Cam Waters has actually lived the race day Mustang experience at Bathurst the last two years and was a little more expansive.
“The last two years in qual trim it hasn’t really been that big of a problem, but we get into the race, and that’s where the problem lies,” said the Tickford Racing driver.
“So I don’t know, mate. Hopefully we get in the race and it’s not as big of a problem as we think it is, but obviously they’ve proved there is an issue there.
“There’s nothing I can do about it right now but to tighten my belts and make up some more time over the top of the Mountain and block, block, block.”
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert qualified third but later admitted his Mustang can’t even seem to achieve the same straightline speed as its fellow Fords.
“It’s one of the things we’ve spoken about last couple of years here and then definitely last year seemed to be a bit of a struggle in the race on the Ford side of the camp,” he said.
“But even in our garage we seem to be even struggling to be as fast as some of the other Fords out there, like I’m still losing a tenth and a half to Brodie’s thing.
“So either he’s got some special Ford rocket motor that they’ve kept aside for him, or our setups are generally draggy, I don’t know.
“I’ve been 25th, 26th in a straight line all week. We’ll see how tomorrow plays out and go from there. I even tried to make the car a bit skinnier [by crashing] in practice one!”
The squabbles over straightline speed could become somewhat irrelevant with showers predicted during the day that threaten to throw a spanner in the works.
“I’m just hoping it’s one of them, old ding-dong battle Bathursts,” said Mostert.
“I hope it puts a bit of pressure on in the pits and the race side of things and strategy and making those right calls, because they’re the favourite Bathursts that we love to watch back.”
Mostert’s WAU teammate Ryan Wood was fourth fastest in the Top 10 Shootout, marking the first time Ford has locked out the front two rows at Bathurst in 35 years.
Discussion about this post