Feeney resists Brown to put one hand on Sprint Cup

Championship leader Broc Feeney has taken a major step towards the Supercars Finals with a controlled victory in the NTI Townsville 500 finale.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering resisted a final stint challenge from teammate Will Brown to clinch his 10th victory of 2025, and second in as many days at Reid Park.

Feeney became just the ninth driver, after Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin, Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup, Mark Skaife, Garth Tander, Marcos Ambrose and Glenn Seton, to claim 10 or more wins in a season.

Tickford Racing tried to destabilise Triple Eight with a bold undercut strategy with Cam Waters, who was unable to prevent former teammate Chaz Mostert stealing the final podium position with 12 laps to go.

Heading to the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440 on August 8-10, Feeney leads Brown by 220 points. With 315 points on offer at Queensland Raceway, Feeney is in the box seat to clinch the first ticket into the Finals.

"Huge credit to Will, that was the hardest race I've had in a long time," said Feeney.

"He was definitely the fastest guy today, and definitely put a lot of pressure on me. In that second stint I was on newer tyres and he was coming back at me, and he had so much pace on me in that last stint.

"Once he got close, about half a second, he dropped off, and I'm guessing his car overheated from being behind, so there was probably a lot of that last stint I didn't think I was going to hang on.

"I was asking a lot of questions about where I needed to improve, but this means a lot. This is a huge win for us."

After the lights went out, Feeney and Matt Payne dragged through Turn 1, with a racy Anton De Pasquale picking off the Penrite Ford on the run to Turn 3. De Pasquale went on with it, attacking Feeney into Turn 11 on the following lap. Feeney resisted De Pasquale's attack and opened up a one second lead on lap 9. Behind them, Waters cleared Thomas Randle at the final corner, with Brown and Mostert demoting Randle to seventh on the following lap.

Payne was determined to keep Feeney within reach, and muscled past De Pasquale at the end of lap 12. De Pasquale was forced to defend from Waters, with Feeney open up a 4.3s lead by lap 23 as Payne fell away.

On lap 14, Tickford pulled Waters out of fourth, with the Monster Ford 3.2s behind Feeney. Brodie Kostecki followed Waters' lead and stopped on the next lap, with Waters setting about making the undercut work.

De Pasquale had fallen 7.2s behind Feeney once Team 18 pulled the DEWALT Camaro in on lap 22, with Will Davison following his former teammate in. Payne stopped on the next lap, releasing Brown, while Davison was forced back in with a loose right wheel. With an eye on the long game, Payne took on more fuel, and rejoined 12 seconds behind Waters.

Brown was short-fuelled and rejoined ahead of De Pasquale and Payne, with Waters 9.7s up the road. As he caught traffic, Feeney was brought in on lap 28. Waters sailed on by and enjoyed am eight second lead, but Feeney had a 14 lap tyre advantage.

With the first stops complete, Waters led a fast closing Feeney, with Brown, De Pasquale, Payne, Mostert, Randle, Kostecki, Ryan Wood and Jack Le Brocq rounding out the top 10. Down the order, David Reynolds turned James Courtney at Turn 2 on lap 31, with the former hit with a 15 second penalty.

Feeney mowed down Waters at the rate of one second per lap. On lap 37, Feeney easily picked off Waters through Turn 11, with Brown making it a Triple Eight 1-2 on lap 39.

Payne was first of the top six to stop for a second time on lap 42. On lap 44, Waters was brought in, having fallen six seconds behind Feeney. It set up a 26-lap run home for Waters, who had changed the complexion of the race in the 30 laps prior.

Triple Eight had no desire to allow Waters back into play, bringing Feeney in on lap 48 amid the threat from Brown behind. Feeney rejoined six seconds ahead of Waters, with Reynolds and James Golding between the two. On lap 50, Brown stopped, and re-established an effective Triple Eight 1-2.

On lap 54, Brown set the fastest lap of the race, but still had 2.2s to find on Feeney with 16 laps remaining. Feeney responded with a personal best first sector on the very next lap, but Brown remained within striking distance.

Despite being clear about giving pit priority to Feeney, Triple Eight allowed Brown to challenge his teammate. In the closing laps, the margin hovered around 0.5s, before Feeney eked out the margin. Try as he might, Brown fell short, Feeney crossing the line 3.019s clear to complete a crushing Triple Eight 1-2 ahead of Mostert, Waters, Payne, De Pasquale, Wood, Randle, Fullwood and Allen rounding out the top 10.

The biggest knocks went to Cameron Hill and Will Davison, who suffered brake issues and a aforementioned loose wheel respectively to cop major hits to their Finals aspirations. Kostecki, meanwhile, slumped to 16th.

Supercars returns to Queensland Raceway on August 8-10 to round out the Repco Sprint Cup at the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440. Tickets are on sale now.