This hasn’t been the season Kyle Koretsky was hoping for in 2023,
Koretsky, after fourth and fifth-place finishes in the points in 2021 and 2022, arrived in Indy ninth in the points standings with one runner-up and one semifinal finish. His semi-final run at the NHRA U.S. Nationals allowed him to climb into eighth as the regular season concluded.
“I think I’m really getting my head on straight now. It’s time to get serious and it’s time to get everything going,” Koretsky said. “The Countdown’s coming up, it’s the last race before the Countdown, then Maple Grove, and we just struggled all year. I think it is a little bit of everything. Pro Stock is combination. It’s driver, it’s car, it’s set-up, and it’s engine. It’s not just one thing, so there’s no one thing that was wrong. I think everything just wasn’t happy, and now the car’s starting to get a little bit happier and it’s kind of getting happy at the right time.”
The term busy doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what he’s likely to experience this weekend at his true home event. The Koretsky family bought Maple Grove Raceway in April of 2022
“Oh, it’s crazy,” Koretsky said about his team running Maple Grove. “It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work, but we have a good team, good crew, good family, great fans and great racers that keep continuously support us and help us. It’s racing. It’s what we love. I do enjoy it a lot. Definitely a lot easier sometimes than our normal work in the construction business, but we enjoy it. It’s work for us. It’s seven days a week. That’s what we do. That’s what my dad taught us to do is work seven days a week to get what you want, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to keep working seven days a week so I can race. “
Koretsky is happy to roll out the red carpet for the upcoming Reading national event, but that isn’t the lone event that keeps his family’s track going.
“We definitely enjoy when the pros and NHRA comes to town, but that’s not our only event,” he said. “We have tons of other events; we have tons of other customers and fans that support us. Just our local bracket racing is huge. Everyone always asks me, ‘Oh, you need the NHRA, and you need the pros to come.’ That’s not true. We love to have them, don’t get me wrong. But there’s more to racing than just the pros. The bracket racing people will keep us alive, and our car shows and our festivals and stuff. So, we can’t forget about those people because that’s really who keeps the sport (going) and keeps us, Maple Grove Raceway, continuously pushing.”