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Driver Spotlight- Ryan Kostreba

With thousands of drivers competing across WISSOTA each season, every driver has a story worth telling. The WISSOTA Driver Spotlight series gives fans a closer look at the people behind the helmets—offering insight into their racing programs, backgrounds, and personalities. All featured drivers answered the same questions.

Our second driver in the WISSOTA Driver Spotlight series is Ryan Kostreba. The Elk River, Minnesota racer is set to compete in his 20th season behind the wheel. His family is full of racers with his brother and son both competing.

What is your home track?
Ogilvie Raceway

What’s been your most memorable race or win so far?
Winning a street stock race at Ogilvie Raceway with a flat left front tire for 10 of the 20 laps and surviving four restarts with Justin Pogones, Cory Rosen, and a whole field of top drivers chasing me.

What’s one lesson racing has taught you that applies to life?
Keep going, keep trying, don't give up

What’s your pre-race ritual or superstition?
I'm really particular about where all my gear is sitting before I get in the car, and I do everything in the same order to get buckled in ready. That's it, Once I leave the pits, I'm just waiting nervously to get on the track

What’s your favorite non-racing hobby?
DIY projects for cars, houses, etc.

If you had an unlimited budget, what would you race and why?
I would still run a Super Stock, but if I had unlimited time to go with it, then I would jump to a Late Model. They require a ton of time and money, but I would love to rip around in one.

What is your favorite race track food?
A nice juicy Cheeseburger. Nothing beats that, except the not dogs Ogilvie has, I have no idea where they get them, but they are phenomenal!

What is the story behind your car number?
I was a fan of Matt Kenseth since 1998 when he was racing the Busch Series against Dale Earnhardt Jr. I like his driving style, smooth and consistent

What’s the biggest misconception people have about racing?
That you just go fast and turn left. There are about 100 other things that need to be done to make it actually be fast. And that includes using the brakes, you just got to know how to use them to make the car faster

What was the biggest misconception you had about racing before you started?
The big guys are way out of my league. I didn't really talk to them for a long time because I viewed them as on another playing field.

What advice would you give to a new driver just starting out?
Ask questions, ask more questions, keep asking people around you.

What WISSOTA event do you most want to win?
Street Stock Little Dream if I was still racing a street stock, but otherwise I would have to say the Wissota 100.

What’s one thing you wish every fan understood about drivers?
They come in all shapes and sizes. I've heard my family comment about how they didn't think a certain driver would look like that, or be so young, or some other preconceived idea.

Please tell us your favorite racing story?
We were racing up at Viking Speedway on Memorial weekend, and the whole weekend had been a bit of a disaster. My son was running as a rookie in the Midwest Mods and rolled his car on Friday night. I spent some time Saturday working on it, and then my brother and I went racing Saturday night, where both of us had our own issues.

We stayed the night in Alexandria and went back to the track on Sunday. Tate had spent all day Saturday and Sunday getting his car back together and decided to join us at Viking Speedway. He was supposed to race the second heat, but he still wasn’t at the track when the first heat started because he had blown a trailer tire on the way up. He pulled into the pits partway through the first heat, and we bled the brakes while he put his suit on, set air pressures, unloaded the car, and tied him in just in time for him to get about a 10-second breather.

Then Russ’s car had an engine issue that we were fighting after the heat, and it ended up locking up at intermission, keeping him out of the feature. Tate went out for his feature and got into an accident. Leading up to my feature, we were trying to fix the trailer tire so we could get home. It was pure chaos.

I finally had to stop what I was doing and jump in my car. Once the green dropped, all the chaos was gone. I was able to make a dramatic pass for the lead with three laps to go and went on to win the race—making up for all the bad luck we had all weekend.

Ryan’s sponsors

• CMB Concrete
• Midwest Mini-Storage
• Chubbs Performance
• Roxbury Transmission
• Affordable Chassis
• Bennington Entertainment Center
• Ol'Son Beef
• JDI Signs and Graphics
• Guy's Towing

Follow Ryan's racing program by becoming a fan of his racing Facebook page today Kostreba Racing

With over 2,500 licensed WISSOTA drivers, there are countless stories we want to help tell. To participate in the Driver Spotlight series simply visit the WISSOTA Driver Dashboard and click on WISSOTA Driver Profile to fill out the questionnaire

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