One time after that, Kosiski, his parents, and crew were traveling in his hauler to a race in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They stopped at a fast-food restaurant on the way.
Later, one of the crewmen asked, "Hey, does anyone want any chicken tenders? I've got some extra ones here." No one had realized he had bought chicken. The Kosiski brothers' mother, Grace, glared at the young man, grabbed the chicken from his hands, and threw it out a window.
"That night in time trials," Kosiski says, "I backed my car into the wall."
Kirksville, Missouri, Late Model pilot Sonny Findling also refuses to eat chicken on race day. Findling, who had run well in several 100-lap special events at the former Sunset Speedway in Omaha, says his luck changed the year he ate some of the track's famous chicken in his pit area.
"Billy Drake was parked next to us, and he almost moved," says Findling. "He about had a fit. Drake was a DNF in the feature that night, and I broke the rearend in my car. So I don't eat chicken on race day anymore."
Despite his superstition about chicken, Joe Kosiski is not fearful of the color green. "I always say, 'I carry green all the time.' That's what we go to the races for-to get green," Kosiski says.
Some drivers even race green cars. But Iowa-based Late Model drivers Denny and Dave Eckrich don't like any green on their machines. Whenever a contingency sponsor's decal has green in it, the Eckrich brothers will doctor it with a black felt-tip marker. "It's all mind games," admits Denny. "If your mind isn't set, you aren't doing worth a crap."
But Denny says the family is easing up some on their dislike of green. There have been nights, he says, when they were particularly busy at the track. Then, when they returned to the shop after the races, they realized there had been some item of green on the car that had gone unnoticed.
"We didn't know it-and if we don't know it, we do better," Eckrich says.
Wisconsin native Bill Schwader, the 1974 IMCA New Model Stock Car champion, says he's never been superstitious about anything. "I started racing No. 13 in 1959 in Green Bay, Wisconsin," he says.
Also, he has often campaigned green cars. The car in which he won the championship, however, was an exception. It was a blue No. 29 that he had bought from Ronnie Hutcherson, the 1973 champion.
"Due to my financial condition," says Schwader, "I couldn't afford any green paint."
Does he have a problem with someone eating peanuts and fried chicken in the pit area? "Only if they don't bring some for me," Schwader jokes.
While some drivers say they aren't superstitious, they admit to performing rituals before each race. Dave Pembroke, a Late Model regular on the ACT New England Dodge Tour, is one of them. For example, he puts his left glove on before his right glove.
What has happened when he's altered that routine? "If you don't win, you've got something to blame it on-not that I win every time I do it the same way," he says.
The Vermont driver says he would never want to drive a No. 13 car, but he has always had green on his cars because one of his sponsor's logos is green.
"Knock on wood, we've always had good luck," Pembroke states. He pauses, thinks about what he has said, then laughs. "I always knock on wood!"
Jim Cooksey, a nine-year Modified driver from Salt Lake City, doesn't have any superstitions, "now that I've sobered up," he says with a laugh. "Seriously, I just figure fate takes care of everything."
Late Model driver Skip Frey will wear a certain T-shirt again if he's done well when wearing it in a race. "But other than that," says Frey, "the way I look at it is, you make your own luck by how you prepare."