A year after snatching a record seventh Supercars title at Newcastle, Holden's Jamie Whincup has returned to the street circuit "pissed off" he is in the rare position of being out of championship contention.
The Supercars superstar had initially taken a philosophical approach to this weekend's Newcastle 500 season finale after being relegated to a support role for Red Bull Racing teammate and title contender Shane van Gisbergen.
In the championship's closest season finish in a decade, Ford's Scott McLaughlin has a 14-point lead over van Gisbergen with 300 points on offer this round, ensuring the season will go down to the wire.
But Whincup's annoyance over not being in the title mix reared its head as he appeared to wonder what might have been after finishing second fastest behind McLaughlin at Friday's practice.
"I'm pissed off that I'm not in contention," said Whincup, winner of seven of the last nine championships.
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"I haven't been in this position for a long time, but our only hope's car 97 (van Gisbergen) and we'll do everything we can to make sure the biggest trophy of the year stays at the workshop."
Whincup is third in the championship, a whopping 481 points behind McLaughlin.
It is in stark contrast to 12 months ago when Whincup dramatically reeled in McLaughlin's 78-point series lead to clinch a record seventh crown at the inaugural 2017 Newcastle round.
Remarkably Whincup has only been out of title contention ahead of the season's final round once before in the past 12 years.
Back in 2015, Whincup was completely out of the hunt before the final round and finished a lowly fifth in the standings.
Whincup's Red Bull Racing team can still claim a ninth drivers' title in 11 years if van Gisbergen claims his second championship and first since 2016.
Whincup also hoped to help his other teammate, Craig Lowndes, go out on a high.
Seven-time Bathurst 1000 champion Lowndes, 44, is contesting his final round as a full-time driver at Newcastle, drawing the curtain on a glittering 22-year career.
"Obviously, we're going to see one of the greatest in the sport finish up this weekend in Lowndesy, so we wish him all the best," Whincup said of the three-time series champ.
"But at the same time we're excited to be a two-car operation next year as well and the simplicities of that are a plus also.
"We are looking forward to that but right now we're just all eggs in one basket (for van Gisbergen to win title)."
