Richard Childress Trying to Find Room for Supercars Champ Kostecki

Team owner Richard Childress says he is still interested in Australian Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki, but he hasn’t yet figured out where the Western Australia resident fits into the Welcome, N.C.-based organization.

“We’re still talking to him,” Childress says. “We’ve got a relationship with the company that owns Brodie’s car and we’re dealing with them.”

Currently, Childress doesn’t plan to enter Kostecki in any NASCAR races this season. Richard Childress Racing fielded a Chevrolet for Kostecki in last year’s Indianapolis Grand Prix where he qualified 11th and finished 22nd.

Childress traveled to Australia last November after the NASCAR Cup season ended to spend time with Kostecki and his team owners.

“It was worth the effort spending time with those guys,” says Childress, who stayed a week in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. “I got to look at a lot of stuff, the way they do things and bring those thoughts back to our teams. I spent a lot of time with the engineers. We just hired another engineer from Australia.”

Childress says RCR has hired at least three engineers from Australia’s Supercars Series due to the similarities between those cars and NASCAR’s current Cup car.

“When I go back this year (in November), we’re looking to spend time in Sydney,” Childress says.