Whincup: Surfers win one of my best

Five-time champion and winner of 86 V8 Supercar races Jamie Whincup rates his Surfers Paradise victory one of his best career wins.

Clinching the top spot with co-driver Paul Dumbrell on Sunday - also securing the Pirtek Enduro Cup and blowing his points lead out to 402 - meant a great deal to Whincup.

While focus has been on the 31-year old after the fuel debacle of Bathurst, Whincup has shielded himself from much of the aftermath.

And now with just the Championship to focus on, he is happy to put the 1000km classic behind him and look forward to what will be a record smashing sixth title - if he can pull it off.

"We come into the [Gold Coast] weekend knowing how crazy the weekend is, how many variables, knowing anything that can go wrong generally does go wrong," Whincup told v8supercars.com.au.

"Knowing all that and knowing you've got through all that, plus you've beaten 24 other cars, is a pretty cool sensation.

"These victories are up there with the best of my career without doubt."

While he is Melbourne-born, Whincup has been living on the Gold Coast since signing with Triple Eight and considers the Surfers Paradise street circuit his home race, with friends in the stands cheering him on.

"There was a lot of pride on the line being a home race and I pushed as hard as I could ... we had an excellent car and great strategy that kept us out the front and that was the main thing - so couldn't be happier."

Debate has raged amongst fans whether Whincup did the right thing blocking out his team's calls to press on for the win at Bathurst. Even the team has gotten involved on social media with tongue-in-cheek posts about the near miss at the year's greatest race.

"I haven't been exposed to any of the Bathurst stuff," Whincup said when asked about the last fortnight.

"I've had a lot personally going on the last couple of weeks, which has been relatively stressful, so I'm actually quite relieved that side of things has gotten under control.

"I've missed all the jargon from Bathurst, which is probably not a bad thing either."

While he is happy to have an opinion about on-track happenings, Whincup is very private about life away from racing.

Interestingly, the four-time Bathurst winner says he's not that disappointed about the outcome of the 1000km race, and is proud of the part he played in what some are calling the greatest Bathurst of all-time.

After losing the lead to eventual winner Chaz Mostert at Forrest's Elbow, Whincup drifted back to fifth before crossing the line. He jumped out of the Red Bull Holden Commodore VF on the front straight and lifted his arms to the excited crowd for a cheer once the mammoth eight-hour battle was over.

"I was happy - we were a lap and three quarters down, we started [near] last and I didn't want anyone to be disappointed.

"It was an unbelievable day, not just for us, but for the sport.

"Not everyone can win - there were five or six people who were genuinely going to win that race and I was just one of those five.

"We gave it everything, rolled the dice, ran fifth and happy days. I couldn't be happier.

"I probably should be more disappointed but I'm not. It was an awesome event and I'm pleased to be part of it. I'm sure they'll be replaying that for many years and I was part of that."

Whincup has battled hard on the final lap of the past three Bathurst 1000s, holding off David Reynolds by 0.3sec in 2012, trailing Mark Winterbottom by 0.4sec in '13 and this time having been engaged in another edge-of-the-seat classic.

"I'm really proud of the fact car 1 has taken the biggest race of the year down to the last lap the last three years in a row. As a result of car 1 being there the event has been better and I'm really proud of that...

"I was keeping track of my fuel number - I had radio, I know what the fuel number was, I was sticking to my plan, the fuel number was wrong at the end of the day. In debrief, in hindsight I could've brought insurance and saved our ass, that's history."

There are still 600 points up for grabs at final rounds Phillip Island and the Sydney NRMA 500. Last year, Whincup won a race at both events.