Story: No way to appeal McLaughlin penalty

Shell V-Power Racing acknowledges it has no way to overturn the penalty that cost Scott McLaughlin the Supercars title, and wasn’t surprised it was dealt as quickly as it was.

Polesitter McLaughlin needed to finish 11th or better in the final race of the season in Newcastle, and crossed the line 11th as rival Jamie Whincup won the race.

However the 24-year-old had collided with Craig Lowndes on the run between Turns 1 and 2 on the penultimate lap, the hit between the Shell Ford and TeamVortex Holden leading to a further big impact for the latter.

With the results as Whincup and McLaughlin crossed the line, the pair would have finished the 2017 season level on points with McLaughlin the champion on a countback of race wins.

Story said his immediate reaction was that the incident would attract scrutiny, and that he had to moderate the mood in the garage accordingly.

“The first thing that I sought to do was calm some of the enthusiasm and excitement down, because it was pretty clear it was something that was going to get looked at,” he said.

“But what the outcome was to be was neither here nor there at that point in time.

“You have to be circumspect in these instances, that’s what we are.”