Whincup weighs in on prioritising Feeney, WAU tactics

TRIPLE Eight boss Jamie Whincup admits the time may have come to put all their eggs in Broc Feeney’s basket.

Saturday Adelaide race winner Feeney heads into the final day of the season with a 23-point championship lead over Chaz Mostert. Feeney’s teammate Will Brown is 76 points back and Grove Racing’s Kai Allen is 88 adrift with just 125 left in play.

“That is certainly a topic of conversation tonight, 100 percent,” Whincup told V8 Sleuth when asked if Triple Eight will now fully prioritise Feeney.

“The answer to you right now is no, but that may change.

“Will is very much a long shot now at 80 (sic) points behind, so it could be time.

“The story of today was Broc put himself in that position.

“We were vulnerable to Woody (Ryan Wood). Next door (i.e. Grove) threw everything at us: they fired (Matt) Payne in early just to try to force us in early; we had to hold our nerve. They did a Hail Mary strategy for Kai Allen; that was also on our mind.

“We had Woody that could have done anything, but he wasn’t given that opportunity to do something silly because Broc just muscled his way through.

“I doubt they would have done something silly, that would be very untoward, but we were vulnerable that they could have.

“Broc drove incredibly well.

“It’s nerve-racking because you look at the win and pole stats and there’s daylight to second, but it doesn’t guarantee you the win, when in any other year you would probably have the trophy by now.

“So fingers crossed – and I’m not religious at all – that the guy upstairs gives it to the guy and the crew that’s worked the hardest and deserves it the most, because I seriously believe that should be #88.”

Despite those nerves, Whincup maintains that finals is the right call for the greater good of Supercars and its teams.

Of Walkinshaw Andretti United’s ploy to swap Wood and Mostert in the closing stages to benefit the latter, Whincup had no qualms.

“That’s okay. All that sort of stuff is fine, team orders are legal,” he said.

Now, just 250km of racing remains – and Whincup is rallying the troops to stay laser-focused.

“We’ve given ourselves the best opportunity in the last day, but 20 (sic) points is nothing. It’s three or four spots on-track, so the job is not done,” he said.

“I’m very proud of the effort everyone did to get us into this position but it will mean nothing if we don’t capitalise tomorrow.

“So it’s keep the focus: there’s only 24 hours to go, so you don’t want to drop the ball now.”