He's finishing the year well but Shane Van Gisbergen isn't letting himself think about a Supercars championship defence just yet.
The Red Bull Holden Racing team star claimed a win at his hometown Pukekohe Park Raceway on Saturday to inch closer to the championship lead.
Van Gisbergen's fifth win of the year moves him up to fourth on the title standings and, more importantly, just 159 points behind series leader and teammate Jamie Whincup.
The 28-year-old admits he hasn't let himself think about the title just yet with three races left in the year.
"The battle this year has been great, since Sandown I thought was out of the championship and I stopped caring about it, just went racing and I've gone good ever since," he said.
"Keep up that mentality. Go out, work hard and have fun and try and win some races. It's been working for us."
While Van Gisbergen, who made the most of a mid-race safety car to leap ahead of rivals Whincup and Scott McLaughlin, took out the race win, it was mixed day for the other championship contenders.
McLaughlin finished third ahead of Whincup to move to second in the title race, a mere 18 points behind the six-time driver's champion.
His teammate Fabian Coulthard is now 137 points off the pace after failing to finish following an incident with Holden's David Reynolds which left Coulthard's DJR Team Penske Falcon on its roof.
Ford's Chaz Mostert, whose attempt at a redress sparked the incident with Reynolds and Coulthard, finished 23rd after being slapped with a pitlane penalty.
That means the Prodrive Racing Australia driver is now fifth in the title chase, 210 points behind Whincup.
"Anytime I'm beating Jamie and not too far back from my other championship contenders is good," McLaughlin said before slamming the safety car confusion which allowed Van Gisbergen and second-place finisher Mark Winterbottom to jump both him and Whincup.
"It was pretty full on so we probably need to work on that and sort out their little structure."
The Auckland SuperSprint finishes on Sunday with another 200km race.
