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Feeney snatches Sprint Cup as cruel failure denies Payne

Speedcafe.com · Simon Chapman · 2026-08-23T06:44:17+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Payne held a 110-point lead going into the title-deciding race at the Ipswich Super440 and was in position to win the regular season title until the mid-race issue. The dejected Grove Racing driver identified a suspected electrical problem with his #19 Ford Mustang that took him out of the contest on the stroke of halfway. Winning the Sprint Cup will give Feeney a 25-point bonus for the first round of the Finals Series, which begins at the Gold Coast 500. It’s the second year straight that Feeney has won the Sprint Cup. It also continues a trend of winning milestone races, adding a win in his 150th start alongside his 100th and 50th starts in Supercars. “I’ve got to give a big credit to my Dad, because he’s been telling me all week that it wasn’t over,” said Feeney. “Even today, he said, ‘Nope, you’ve still got a shot at this and you’ve got to be in it to win it’. “I didn’t believe it. Firstly, huge condolences to Grove and Matty because, to be honest, he probably deserved this. They’ve done such a good job all year. “We’ve been by far not as quick as they have. Just like the JR Trophy, you’ve got to be there at the end and you’ve got to make the best of your worst days. “This thing was a rocket. I can’t thank everyone that’s here enough. It’s been an up-and-down year, but I’m so lost for words with that. “We’ve been working so much on making our race car fast. If yesterday we didn’t have a fast car and were able to move through, it would have been wrapped up. “There have been plenty of times this year we’ve been on the back foot. A huge shout-out to Marty (Martin Short, race engineer). “It’s been a hectic few weeks for us, but we had a fast race car. We weren’t even thinking about what happens to those other guys, but we just wanted to win a race today. “I would have rather won that race than win the Sprint Cup to be honest and have taken that momentum. “To do both, far out.” Initially, it was an even start between the Triple Eight teammates, Feeney and Will Brown. They ran side-by-side through the first two turns and down to Turn 3. Feeney swept around Brown’s outside to assume the lead exiting Turn 3. Kai Allen was the first of the top 10 runners to pit out of third at the end of Lap 16. Rylan Gray and Ryan Wood took the opportunity to pit too. Brown responded a lap later with a three-second deficit to Feeney, who ran long to Lap 21. Midway through the pit stop sequence, Chaz Mostert’s Toyota Supra suddenly slowed and crawled into the pit lane. Attention immediately went under the bonnet of the car, which was among the cars to receive the B-spec engine on the eve of the weekend. Brodie Kostecki made a move on Allen for third on Lap 31 at Turn 3 to put himself on the podium. There were more dramas on Lap 32 when Payne reported he lost power and pulled into the pits and plummeted down the pylon. Meanwhile, Kostecki continued his march forward with a pass on Brown for second on Lap 33. The dramatic scenes continued on Lap 36 when Jayden Ojeda spun his PremiAir Racing Camaro at Turn 4. He tried to lunge Andre Heimgartner for 11th but locked up and hit the #8 Brad Jones Racing Supra, which tipped the rookie around. The second round of pit stops for the front-runners began in earnest on Lap 41 when Allen came to the lane. Brown pitted a lap later in response. Kostecki was five seconds in arrears of Feeney when he pitted on Lap 45. Having built a massive margin to Kostecki, Feeney elected to run long but soon found himself mired among other cars in the midst of green flag pit stops on fresher tyres. Feeney radioed: “For **** sake mate, what are we doing?” On Lap 47, Feeney pitted out of the lead for his final stop. On the rejoin, Feeney’s gap diminished to 1.4s over Kostecki. Feeney and Kostecki began to trade the fastest laps of the race. Further afield, about six seconds in arrears, Brown and Allen were having their own war over third. Kostecki looked like he might challenge Feeney for the win but ultimately settled for second while Brown was third. Allen was fourth while Golding was an impressive fifth, up three places. Leading Chevrolet Camaro driver Anton De Pasquale was a quiet achiever in sixth for Team 18, up five places on where he began. Cameron Waters started seventh and finished seventh ahead of Rylan Gray (Dick Johnson Racing), David Reynolds (Team 18), and Aaron Cameron (Blanchard Racing Team). Results: Repco Supercars Championship Century Batteries Ipswich Super440, Race 3 | Pos | Num | Driver | Team | Car | Laps/Diff | Gap | | 1 | 88 | Broc Feeney | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 62 laps | | | 2 | 17 | Brodie Kostecki | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 1.4523 | 1.4523 | | 3 | 888 | William Brown | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 13.8311 | 12.3788 | | 4 | 26 | Kai Allen | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 16.1355 | 2.3044 | | 5 | 7 | James Golding | Blanchard Racing Team | Ford Mustang GT | 27.3416 | 11.2061 | | 6 | 18 | Anton De Pasquale | Team 18 | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 31.1284 | 3.7868 | | 7 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 37.5330 | 6.4046 | | 8 | 38 | Rylan Gray | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 41.3801 | 3.8471 | | 9 | 20 | David Reynolds | Team 18 | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 42.9545 | 1.5744 | | 10 | 3 | Aaron Cameron | Blanchard Racing Team | Ford Mustang GT | 48.6256 | 5.6711 | | 11 | 55 | Thomas Randle | Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 49.9024 | 1.2768 | | 12 | 99 | Cooper Murray | Erebus Motorsport | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 52.0043 | 2.1019 | | 13 | 2 | Ryan Wood | Walkinshaw TWG Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 55.5978 | 3.5935 | | 14 | 8 | Andre Heimgartner | Brad Jones Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 56.9863 | 1.3885 | | 15 | 14 | Cameron Hill | Brad Jones Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 57.7481 | 0.7618 | | 16 | 10 | Zach Bates | Matt Stone Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1:00.5455 | 2.7974 | | 17 | 11 | Jackson Walls | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 1:01.1684 | 0.6229 | | 18 | 31 | Jayden Ojeda | PremiAir Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1:01.2190 | 0.0506 | | 19 | 777 | Declan Fraser | PremiAir Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1:02.6546 | 1.4356 | | 20 | 4 | Jack Le Brocq | Matt Stone Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1:07.3266 | 4.6720 | | 21 | 9 | Jobe Stewart | Erebus Motorsport | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1:09.8544 | 2.5278 | | 22 | 30 | Aaron Seton | Matt Stone Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1 lap | 6.2589 | | 23 | 5 | Ben Gomersall | Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 1 lap | 0.9191 | | 24 | 96 | Macauley Jones | Brad Jones Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 1 lap | 1.2575 | | 25 | 15 | Bayley Hall | Team 18 | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 1 lap | 5.0527 | | DNF | 1 | Chaz Mostert | Walkinshaw TWG Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | Lap 23 | | | DNF | 19 | Matthew Payne | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang GT | Lap 31 |