Brodie Kostecki is finally getting to live out a dream of competing in a NASCAR race this weekend at Indianapolis, but his initial reaction to the opportunity wasn’t vigorous excitement.
“I was actually very scared when I found out I was doing this race,” said Kostecki, a regular in Australia’s Supercars series.
The Indianapolis road course was not the cleanest of races for the NASCAR Cup Series in its first two seasons. A tight right-hander into Turn 1 is just too enticing for drivers, which has resulted in contact and carnage. It is what stood out to Kostecki when he began reviewing tape ahead of his debut.
“I went back through the last two years and went to study pretty quickly how the race played out and what it was like into Turn 1,” Kostecki said. “But obviously this weekend has been changed with the restart zone. It was sort of a bit interesting going back through and watching how the races played out, but I honestly think it’ll be quite a bit different with the restart zone.”
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In hopes of cleaning up the first turn, NASCAR has backed the restart zone up this weekend to between Turns 13 and 14. It is before the field makes the turn onto the front straightaway, and it is not required they to stay in line before crossing the start/finish line — which NASCAR hopes means the field will be more spread out before Turn 1.
“I think what we do back home is quite similar in a way,” Kostecki said of the physical nature of Cup Series racing. “There are probably a little bit more rules around our racing back home, but it is pretty similar in a way. I’ll do what I do best and drive the car and see what happens.”
Kostecki is one of two Supercars interlopers in the field this weekend, joining rival Shane van Gisbergen, who won on his Cup debut at Chicago earlier this season. However, Kostecki’s first laps in the Next Gen car came Saturday during practice and qualifying as his only preparation time has been about 13 to 14 hours on the Chevrolet simulator.
“Honestly, there’s a lot of similarities between the Camaro I’m racing today and what I race back home in Australia,” Kostecki said.
Getting a ride in the Cup Series has been two years in the making for Kostecki and Richard Childress Racing. Options had been limited in making the schedule work without conflict, and the two races that stood out were Chicago and Indianapolis.
“With how RCR performed here last year, we circled that one on the calendar quite a while ago,” Kostecki said. “Obviously, what Shane did at Chicago was quite amazing, but I think it’s very different circumstances where this weekend.”
This is not a new infatuation with NASCAR for Kostecki. He is a former competitor of the K&N East (now ARCA Menards) Series and also ran late models in America in the early 2010s. But he’s made a name for himself back home in Australia as one of the most decorated drivers in Supercars competition.
“To get this opportunity with everyone at RCR and Richard [Childress] to come and make my Cup debut, I’ve sort of done a full circle,” Kostecki said, “which is pretty cool.”