Feeney pulls off Sprint Cup miracle, Payne heartbroken

Broc Feeney has pulled off the ultimate smash and grab performance, dominating the final race of the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440, and stealing the 2026 Repco Sprint Cup at the final opportunity.

Feeney's miraculous turnaround was paired with utter devastation for red-hot favourite Matt Payne, who was forced out from a winning position with an engine failure at the halfway mark of the race.

It capped off a memorable 150th career start for Feeney, who also won his 50th and 100th Supercars starts. Feeney is now automatically qualified for the Repco Supercars Finals Series, and will carry 25 bonus points into the first Elimination Final on the Gold Coast.

The start promised to be vitally important, with the driver who led from the all-Triple Eight front row bound to get a massive upper hand with pit priority.

As Feeney got a better second phase in his start, Will Brown kept his nose up the inside at Turn 1 from pole, and inched ahead at Turn 2, though Feeney hung tough and rounded up his teammate around the outside of Turn 3.

Brown, meanwhile, had to contend with Kai Allen having a peek down the inside, though the young gun decided discretion was the better part of valour in a potential three-wide scenario.

Payne gained a spot at the start on Chaz Mostert, and was content to sit in fifth, having not quite had the pace that he possessed through Saturday.

The two Red Bull Ampol Fords pulled away through the opening stint, with Brodie Kostecki starting to apply pressure to Allen before the Penrite Ford pitted on lap 16.

Brown covered the potential undercut from Allen the following time by, though Feeney was in no hurry to cover his teammate, having pulled a gap to the tune of three and a half seconds over the course of the opening stint.

The #88 Ford pitted for the first time on lap 21, emerging with just over a second in hand over Brown, who still had Allen in close quarters.

Mostert was forced into the lane when his upgraded Toyota engine went off-song on lap 24, another big bag of points for Walkinshaw TWG Racing falling by the wayside.

At the same time Mostert slowed on track, Kostecki made his first stop at the end of a longer first stint, and by lap 31 he had cruised up to the back of Allen, and passed the Penrite Ford for a podium position at Turn 3.

On lap 32, the Repco Sprint Cup battle was completely turned on its head, as Payne's Ford dropped a cylinder entering Turn 3, the second engine drama for a major player in the space of 20 minutes.

The Kiwi immediately headed straight for pit lane, and could only watch helplessly as Feeney streaked away at the front of the field, with seven seconds in hand over Kostecki, who had also moved his way by Brown and into second.

Allen made his final stop on lap 41, which Brown covered the following time by, while Kostecki was slowly eating in to Feeney lead before he pitted on lap 45.

Feeney, meanwhile, was dealing with lapped traffic on much newer tyres, Cam Waters and Rylan Gray both blazing by before Feeney made his final stop on lap 47.

An incentivised Kostecki closed to within a second of Feeney, and set the fastest lap of the race as Feeney got up to speed, the lapped traffic severely cutting into Feeney's deficit.

All Feeney needed to defend his Sprint Cup title was a podium finish, but back-to-back personal best laps broke the back of the Kostecki charge, with Feeney claiming the most unlikely of Sprint Cup triumphs.

Brown completed the podium to cap off his stellar weekend, with Allen, James Golding, Anton De Pasquale, Waters, Gray, David Reynolds and Aaron Cameron rounding out the top 10.

The 2026 Repco Supercars Championship now shifts into enduro mode, with the next round at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend from September 11-13.