Kostecki's tough love unlocking rising star’s potential

Heading into his rookie Supercars campaign, Rylan Gray was under no illusions that being Brodie Kostecki’s teammate would be “really tough.”

Crucially, while results have been hard to come by for the teenager, Gray is benefiting from some hard lessons from the blunt Kostecki, who has emerged as a championship contender in 2026.

Through five rounds, Gray sits a lowly 21st overall, 18 positions below his decorated teammate. While Dick Johnson Racing maintains it won’t put extra pressure on Gray, the driver himself admits he’s not where he wants to be.

However, green shoots are emerging for Gray and engineer Ed Williams, with the #38 Shell V-Power Ford emerging as a greater presence in qualifying.

“It’s obviously been a tough start to the year, but it's sort of what you sort of expect coming in as a rookie,” Gray told Supercars.com.

“We're slowly finding our feet. We're discovering more quali speed, which is what we really struggled with at the start of the year.

"But going to Darwin as a repeat round for me is good, obviously doing a wildcard last year with Tickford. I’ve got a bit of experience at this track, so hopefully we can do something good this weekend.”

“Hopefully I can get in and everything's just as familiar as when I left it and just get straight back into business.”

The Tasmania debrief was a bruising one for DJR, with Kostecki and Gray both undone by fuel issues in the Symmons Plains finale. It was particularly jarring for Kostecki, who battled with a damaged car and fell 173 points behind leader Broc Feeney.

Gray’s season has had its own moments, from brake issues in Melbourne to a crash in Christchurch, which attracted a points penalty. Gray, however, believes a platform is starting to form for the #38 crew.

“We just need to keep learning and working on little fundamentals that we're missing,” the New South Welshman said.

“We discovered a bit more quali speed at Tassie where we're at the back end of the top 10, and just missed out on the Shootout on Sunday.

“That was our massive struggle from the start of the year, we just didn't quite work out how to switch this tyre on, as it's a fresh tyre for myself.

“We’ve had quite good race pace throughout the first half of the year. We’ve just been a bit unlucky with a few things. The fundamentals are starting to build and we're starting to put something good together.”

Kostecki has formed a reputation as being arguably the most brash and technically sound driver on the Supercars grid. If there’s an issue, Kostecki typically dives in headfirst, and pulls no punches.

Gray has felt that firsthand, and importantly, Kostecki isn’t gatekeeping his intel. Rather, Kostecki and Gray have formed a strong bond, exercising together and catching up away from the track.

“I knew being Brodie’s teammate was going be really tough,” Gray said.

“He's obviously a champion and a Bathurst winner, he's achieved everything you want to achieve in this sport. He’s been a really good help for me. He's been a great friend as well, we spend a lot of time together outside the track.

“I’ve been asking him heaps of questions. He tells me if I need to sharpen up and he gives me a kick up the butt, which is good.

“But that’s what you want in a teammate, you don't want someone that just sugarcoats everything. I don't think I'd want anyone else as a teammate.”

While Finals seems a bridge too far in 2026, Gray isn’t keen on adopting an underdog moniker, instead reminding us of recent success: “I wouldn’t call myself [an underdog]. I'm sort of just focusing on myself and just doing things my way.

“It seemed to work previously with Super2, we won a championship last year.”

Track action commences on Friday June 19 at Hidden Valley.