RICHARD Childress wants to run Brodie Kostecki in as many as five NASCAR races next season, declaring the Supercars star has the talent to eventually make a full-time move to the United States.
Childress, 78, is at the Adelaide 500 this weekend as a guest of Erebus Motorsport, with which Kostecki hopes to secure a maiden Supercars Championship title in just his third season.
Erebus and Childress’ NASCAR squad have formed a relationship over recent years, largely centred around helping the latter’s road course program.
Kostecki, who spent his teenage years racing in NASCAR’s junior leagues while based in the US, made his maiden Cup Series start at Indianapolis in August aboard an additional RCR entry.
By contrast to the dream debut enjoyed by Supercars rival Shane van Gisbergen on the new Chicago street course the previous month, Kostecki was dealt a rough hand.
Mechanical issues limited Kostecki’s practice time and a crash in qualifying meant he started the race at the rear of the field, from which he fought through to finish 22nd.
Childress, who took a hotlap of the Adelaide circuit with Kostecki on Thursday, is full of praise for the 26-year-old and is keen to run him in multiple races next year.
The veteran owner plans to hunt sponsorship opportunities to make that happen while on the ground in Adelaide.
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“We didn’t do him a good job, our team didn’t do him a good job,” Childress told V8 Sleuth of Kostecki’s run at Indianapolis.
“He didn’t get more than a couple of laps practice and he did good for no more practice than he had.
“Hopefully we can get him back over there and do him a lot better job and get him in the right situation.
“We’re working on trying to put some stuff together now. We’d like to run him on a couple of the road courses and maybe even an oval.
“It’d be nice to see him on an oval too.”
The oval track plan is a clear hint that there could be even bigger things ahead for the West Australian driver.
Asked if he sees Kostecki as becoming a full-time RCR driver in the future, Childress added: “At some point.
“He’s got the talent. It all boils down to kind of what he wants to do and wherever he wants to go. I know he loves racing here (in Australia) and he loves racing these cars.”
Such a move would see Kostecki follow in the footsteps of current Supercars title rival van Gisbergen, who will relocate to the US next month.
Contracted to Trackhouse Racing, van Gisbergen will next year run an extensive development program that will include races from all three major NASCAR divisions; Cup, Xfinity and Trucks.
Kostecki is also US-bound following the Adelaide 500, set to share an RCR entry in the World Racing League final at the Circuit of the Americas with the team’s Cup stars Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon.
