The Dick Johnson Racing driver got the holeshot on Anton De Pasquale into Turn 1, leaving the Team 18 driver vulnerable to an attack from Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters.
De Pasquale pitted early out of third on Lap 6 and Kostecki covered a lap later to thwart an undercut.
However, as the times levelled out between those who pitted and the front runners in clear air despite older tyres, it became evident that Kostecki and De Pasquale had very little in the way of a rubber advantage.
Waters ran long and only had to wait a few laps before he passed Kostecki for the lead, opening the door to Waters with 13 laps remaining who went on to win.
The #17 Shell V-Power Mustang eventually faded to fourth while the #18 DeWalt Camaro slipped to sixth as the likes of Grove Racing duo Kai Allen and Matt Payne made headway, having pitted late like Waters.
“I knew I was in a world of hurt pretty much,” Kostecki explained post-race.
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“If I wanted to bring the car home either second or third or fourth, the best thing to do was unfortunately let him go.
“We just weren’t fast enough today. We’ll obviously go through everything tonight and I’ll get some sleep – I’m pretty tired after that and come back tomorrow.”
The fourth place finish capped off a turbulent 24 hours for Kostecki.
He missed the pre-event Track to Town on Thursday due to illness and then his Ford began to cough with a throttle body issue in practice on Friday morning.
Although he had plenty in the way of one-lap pace to take pole position, Kostecki bemoaned tyre life in the race.
“We just didn’t have much tyre life that race,” he said.
“I think we were probably just a change behind of where we should have been.
“Just abusing the tyres a fair bit and couldn’t really carry any mid-corner speed.
“It’s just that this track is so punishing when you burn off the rears.
“Every corner flows onto another one. There is no real braking so all the time is made up in the corners.
“We’ll do a bit of work on the Shell V-Power Ford Mustang and come back tomorrow.”
Kostecki remains third in the drivers’ championship, 146 points in arrears of Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney while Matt Payne is second for Grove Racing and 59 points off the lead.
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