Feeney urges Triple Eight to pivot towards Finals

Broc Feeney believes Triple Eight must take a new approach for coming rounds with an eye on Finals, after Penrite Racing stamped its authority on the championship in Darwin.

Matt Payne slashed Feeney's lead from 90 to 15 points in the drivers' championship, with Penrite Racing taking the teams' championship lead.

Feeney and Triple Eight entered Darwin with a sparkling record at Hidden Valley, winning six of eight races between 2023 and 2025. Last weekend, Triple Eight failed to reach the podium across both drivers, and ended the week patching up tension over a team orders call.

Managing Director Jamie Whincup admitted the team was "hurting" on Saturday afternoon, and conceded the team was set to take a mid-event "swing" on set-up. Team Manager Mark Dutton, post-event, insisted the team isn't feeling beaten by the weekend.

However, Feeney believes coming events could be useful to uncover more answers ahead of the Finals.

It's a contrast to Whincup's quotes earlier in the year, when he told Apex Hunters United podcast pre-season: "We prepare as well as we can... if anyone says that we're gonna prepare a little bit harder for the last race or Bathurst, well, why aren't you doing that for every other race?"

"Probably at the stage of the season where we probably need to start using these next events as some test days — get ready for the end of the year,” Feeney said.

"I think we need to start trying some new things and learning a bit more. Today, we tried something that we haven't before, which is good, and there are some takeaways from that for next time out.

"I think, over the weekend, we probably stepped out of the box a little bit more to just try and understand what we've got in this car and package. We need to keep doing that.

Dutton believes some answers had already been uncovered, even if the result didn't follow suit.

“There is a lot to digest from the weekend as we tried some different things on the cars. Not wild things, still measured, but we have a lot of data to digest and understand," Dutton said.

“With the lack of test days you do have to be mindful about scoring points while learning and developing. You‘ve got to make a decision about how much to have a swing, or go for consistency.

“Definitely some new learnings from this weekend. Lots of work to be done but good positive stuff.”

Track action at the NTI Townsville 500 commences on Friday 10 July.