Jamie Whincup claims 2017 Supercars title as Scott McLaughlin is post-race penalised

Jamie Whincup was crowned the Supercars champion for the seventh time in a dramatic final round of the year in Newcastle as Scott McLaughlin was given a post-race penalty for an incident with Craig Lowndes.

“I’m lost for words. I didn’t have a clue crossing the line, I assumed I came second and the crew goes ‘you’ve got number one’,” said Whincup.

“What a rollercoaster, massive event, I’m just glad we were able to put on such a good show. We fought hard, didn’t have the quickest car all year, but it’s all about teamwork and sport’s all mental.”

McLaughlin started the race from pole position and claimed the lead off the line. But things went from bad to worse from there as he was to receive no less than three penalties during the race.

The first came during his first pit stop when he speeded and was given a drive-through penalty, a fate shared by his DJR Team Penske team-mate Fabian Coulthard and Erebus Motorsport driver Dale Wood.

The penalty saw McLaughlin dropping down to 23rd position and fought his way back up through the field, only to hit trouble again when he tried to pass Nissan Motorsport driver Simona De Silvestro and received 15-second penalty as he turned her around while fighting for eleventh position, the position the Kiwi needed to finish on in order to win the title.

McLaughlin had it all to do again after his second penalty but took advantage of a couple of safety car restarts, with the final one on lap 70 to clear debris on track.

The final part of the race was chaotic with several incidents, with McLaughlin taking a hit from Britek Motorsport driver Jason Bright, dropping him down to 14th position and tyre smoke coming out from his Ford Falcon.

McLaughlin had to pass three drivers in order to secure the title, passing Scott Pye, Garth Tander and finally James Moffat on the penultimate lap to claim his sought after eleventh position.

But the DJR Team Penske driver made a mistake, allowing Whincup’s team-mate Lowndes up alongside him. McLaughlin tried to close the door, resulting in contact and Lowndes hitting the wall and breaking his front-left suspension, spinning out into retirement.

The stewards handed McLaughlin a third penalty for the incident, dropping him from eleventh to 18th, handing Whincup the title by 21 points despite leading the championship by 30 points before the start of the race.

“I lost my left-hand mirror so early. I knew we were close, but I didn’t think we were that close, I just defended the line into Turn 2 and we got interlocked and I genuinely didn’t mean to push him into he wall,” said McLaughlin.

“To get pinged like that… I shouldn’t have even been there in the first place. That’s hard. To all our fans that stuck by us, our sponsors, I’m so sorry. I wish I could get it done for them but at least we got the teams’ championship. I’m 24 years old, I’ll have another crack yet.”

Whincup won the race four seconds ahead of Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mate Shane van Gisbergen, with Erebus Motorsport driver David Reynolds completing the podium.

Nissan Motorsport rounded off the top five with Rick Kelly in fourth and Michael Caruso in fifth.