Whincup on longest Triple Eight dry spell

The 22 races that have passed since Jamie Whincup's last Supercars victory is the seven-time champion's longest winless run since joining Triple Eight in 2006.

Whincup has stood on the podium eight times since winning the Sandown 500 with Paul Dumbrell last September, but not on the top step.

The final six races of 2018, excluding the washed-out Gold Coast finale, and this year's first 16 have now been run without a Whincup victory.

That moves Whincup past his previous longest winless run, 19 races between Adelaide and Bathurst victories in 2006, his first season with Triple Eight.

Whincup's end of 2018 included his Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore losing a wheel at Bathurst and Dumbrell copping a penalty on the Gold Coast.

He was also trying to support team-mate Shane van Gisbergen's efforts to win the championship.

This season, Triple Eight has grappled with Supercars' switch back to linear-spring dampers while Shell V-Power Racing has taken control with the new Ford Mustang.

Van Gisbergen and Whincup are fifth and sixth in the 2019 standings, separated by nine points but both more than 500 behind leader Scott McLaughlin.

"The real battle is done at the workshop," Whincup said after finishing fifth both days at Hidden Valley. "We need to bring a faster car to the track.

"That's motorsport, it's been the same since it started, so we just need to make the cars faster, which we'll continue to try to do."

Since joining Triple Eight in 2006 as a junior team-mate to Craig Lowndes, Whincup has reset Supercars record books, headlined by seven titles and 113 race wins.

He has also bounced back from a number of dry spells, most-recently in 2017 when he didn't win until Race 14 but still beat McLaughlin to the crown.

In all, this is just the eighth time Whincup has gone 10 races or more without a victory since 2006.

His longest winless runs before this current stretch were either side of his maiden Bathurst triumph with Lowndes.

On his Triple Eight debut in a Betta Electrical Ford, Whincup won the Sunday leg of the Adelaide 500 but then had to wait until the 2006 Great Race for his next win.

Triple Eight did not win again that year, as Lowndes narrowly missed the title, or until the ninth race of 2007 through Whincup at Winton.

From there, Whincup went another 12 races before celebrating again, at Sandown with Lowndes in that year's opening enduro.

Whincup is by far the most-successful driver in the history of the Watpac Townsville 400, being held this weekend.

He is a 10-time race winner since the event was introduced in 2009, including the first in 2009, below, and last year's Saturday race.

Whincup's most races without a win since 2006Completed races between Whincup victories, the listed races