Feeney fuming, Whincup explains bungled team play

Broc Feeney has been left to rue a bungled team orders call that has added a sour note to what he has described as "one of the most challenging weekends of my career."

Though Feeney was much more competitive on Sunday, starting fourth for the 70-lap finale, he was still never in the fight for the win, which was ultimately claimed by Anton De Pasquale.

He was briefly in contention for a podium after Cam Waters made his final stop, making heavy contact with the Monster Mustang at Turn 7, however he faded from the #6 Ford as the laps wore on.

With teammate Will Brown showing great pace behind, a swap of positions was orchestrated, on the proviso that Brown would give the position back should he be unable to catch Waters.

It appeared a formality that would occur, as the margin between the pair stabilised at around one and a half seconds, before Chaz Mostert's engine failed inside the final five laps. That scuppered any opportunity for the swap to be made, with Feeney livid after climbing out of his #88 Ford.

"A little bit awkward at the end there, we did a bit of a shake and bake and let Will in front to try and get Cam Waters," said Team Principal Jamie Whincup post-race.

"We were supposed to give the position back [to Feeney], but then the Safety Car came out.

"Broc's on the limiter, which I'd expect. I understand as a driver."

When pressed on whether or not he would play peacemaker, Whincup continued: "Yeah that's my job now, I was going to get into the party pies, but now I've just got to try and calm a few drivers down and group everyone together.

"We unfortunately lost the teams' championship [lead], which hurts a little bit, but Broc's still leading the drivers' championship, so it's not all doom and gloom. No panic stations. But it was a tough weekend by our standard."

It didn't do any favours in his championship battle with Matt Payne, who has now closed to sit just 15 points behind Feeney with three rounds of the Repco Sprint Cup remaining.

The 23-year-old wasn't hiding from how much his fortunes had changes year-on-year in Darwin, as the team failed to win a single trophy after clean sweeping the weekend with Feeney last year.

"So, a challenging weekend, one of the most challenging weekends I've had in my career, it feels," admitted Feeney in a team release.

"Probably a tough pill to swallow, not just because of our results here over the last few years, but we know what we're capable of doing and, at the moment, we're not doing that. We're far from that.

"We were just on the back foot the whole weekend. There are a couple of things we've been working on, but from the get-go, we felt like we were a little bit down on power compared to the other cars out there — even the same manufacturer, the other Mustangs.

"So we felt like that's been a bit of a hurdle all weekend, trying to get on top of that. But also, car pace just hasn't been there overall."

Feeney also made an appearance on the Equip Super Cool Down Lap podcast, where he offered a curt comment on the incident: "We'll debrief it. Obviously unfortunate with the Safety Car. The plan was to swap us back."

The Supercars season continues at the NTI Townsville 500 from July 10-12.