Rick Kelly: We had a winning car

Rick Kelly has declared his Nissan Altima felt like a race winner at the weekend's Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

His Jack Daniel's Altima, shared with David Russell, ended the enduro eighth, while Todd Kelly/Alex Buncombe were seventh and James Moffat/Taz Douglas coming home second.

To earn a podium, have three cars in the top 10 and all four running at the end of the carnage-filled race, it was a strong result for the squad, despite a number of dramas for each entry.

However, Kelly described his result at upsetting, given the performance of his car.

"The car we had (on Sunday) was a race winning car, no doubt," he said in the team's post-race wrap.

"In the first stint we developed a misfire, but I think we were still the second fastest car on the track at that time, and it felt fantastic.

"Unfortunately it just got worse, we didn't get Dave in the car at the right time either, which didn't help, and this the misfire got that bad that it was costing us a second a lap, and then probably two or three at the end there ... I couldn't believe the pace it had, and we finished nowhere because of the miss unfortunately.

"For us you don't want to throw away a result like that."

Co-driver Russell described the race as one of the craziest Bathursts he had ever raced in.

"It certainly was a wild one, in all of the 1000s I've done, I've never seen so much carnage, but at the same time fierce pace as well," he said,

"I'm really proud because we matched the pace of the leaders, today we had every chance to do that.

"Unfortunately we were hampered in the race ... before the red flag situation with an electrical problem, obviously the engine was still running, but it cost us a lot of time and a lot of power on the straights.

"The fact that we pushed through that and kept the pace up all day, and come through to finish in the top-ten is something, but I can't help but wonder where we would have been if we didn't have those dramas throughout the race."

Kelly congratulated teammate Moffat, who managed second despite his Norton Nissan going into the tyres twice at turn two and finishing the race pretty battered and taped.

Moffat has shown improved form recently, nabbing his first V8 Supercars ARMOR ALL Pole Position in August at Queensland Raceway, and now recording his best finish (which was previously 10th with Alex Davison in 2012).

"Excited for Moff ... for him to capitalise on everyone's problems," Kelly said.

"To get up to second here at Bathurst is really great for the team."

The fourth Nissan of Michael Caruso/Dean Fiore came home 15th, three laps down after suffering from a power steering issue.