When the Kosiski brothers - Joe, Steve, and Ed - show up to race, promoters smile, fans cheer, and fellow drivers cringe. Promoters know the three Super Late Model dirt track drivers from Omaha, Nebraska, will fill the stands. Fellow drivers get a little uneasy when the three pull in because, simply, they're tough to beat.
Between them, the Kosiskis account for 20 major NASCAR regional, national, and touring series championships. They own numerous track championships.
"They definitely set the performance bar in the Midwest when it comes to dirt Late Model racing," says driver Kyle Berck of Marquette, Nebraska. "They have put Nebraska on the map in the racing community as result of their individual career track records."
A while back, Joe, who at 45 is the oldest brother, did some research. The 26-year veteran of dirt track duels discovered he's raced in 34 states, winning races in about 28 of them. Steve, 42, has raced at 150 tracks in 30 states in his 23 seasons of competition.
The Kosiski brothers are a "feather in any racetrack's cap," says Craig Kelley, manager of Nebraska Raceway Park, a NASCAR-sanctioned dirt oval near Omaha. Kelley grew up with the brothers. "They're clean drivers, and they've got nice equipment and nicely dressed crews. They're the people you take a prospective sponsor to meet when you take them on a pit tour."
They're also tough as nails on the speedway. Read the results from places they've raced and you'll generally find one or more of the Kosiskis listed in the Top 10.
One night last August, for example, Nebraska Raceway Park ran double features, and nearly 30 drivers competed in each race. Joe won the first one with Steve finishing third and Ed fourth. In the second race, Joe was third, Ed was fourth, and Steve seventh.
Brotherly Love?The brothers are just as competitive with each other as they are with other drivers. Joe says the reason is simple: each brother pays his bills out of what he makes from racing. And besides, adds Steve, by racing against each other, "we've made ourselves better."
Don't expect one brother to block other drivers so another brother can win a race. If he were to block, Joe says, "I'd be sitting back there thinking, 'Well, I got a $500 check here, and he got a $3,000 check. Who's the dummy here?'"
Still, each Kosiski admits it often hurts a bit to win at the expense of another brother. "In one way, it's harder to race against your brother than someone else because, when you're trying to be successful, you know that's hurting your brother," Joe says.
There have been times, for example, when one of the Kosiskis was racing for a track championship while another brother was competing in the same event for a NASCAR regional championship. "If you're leading the feature, you hate to be first and him be second when you know that maybe a feature win would help him get the regional championship," Joe says. But the bottom line, he quickly adds, is "You're there doing what you have to do. That's what you have to say to yourself."
As Ed, 37 puts it: "My brothers are my competitors. We pay our own bills. How well we do is how we pay for our racing. So we don't want to give somebody else something that we want."
Following FatherIt was, perhaps, inevitable that Joe, Steve, and Ed Kosiski strapped into stock cars instead of taking up some other leisure activity. Their father, Bob, raced on Midwest tracks from 1952 to 1979. He even competed in the 1960 Daytona 500.
Bob met his wife, Grace, at a racetrack. When Bob and Grace had a family of their own, she took their three sons and four daughters - Kathy, Sue, Mary, and Sandy - to the track to watch their dad compete whenever possible.
That was never often enough for the boys. Their dad raced three to four nights a week and, when school was in session, the kids were allowed to go to the races only on Saturday nights. "I cried when I had to stay home," Joe recalls.