Feeney entered the day with a 23-point lead over nearest rival Chaz Mostert and took another step towards the title by scoring pole position.

However, his day began to unravel when he was spun to the back of the field by Mostert’s teammate Ryan Wood on the opening lap.

His charge back up the field was first hampered by a slow first pit stop, before an engine issue became apparent around the halfway mark of the 78-lap contest.

Feeney continued to soldier on the sick engine – which the team suggested was a “similar thing” to the crank angle position sensor problem he endured early in the Saturday race.

The team cleared a space in the garage with 30 laps to go but elected to keep the car on circuit, with the problem appearing to worsen as the race went on.

Feeney endured the pain of watching Mostert put him a lap down with just under 10 laps remaining and eventually finished 20th.

The 23-year-old was in tears as he drove back to the Triple Eight garage while Mostert celebrated his championship victory.

Appearing briefly on the Fox Sports broadcast with Mark Larkham post-race, Feeney spoke through tears of his heartache.

“I just want to thank everyone at Red Bull Ampol Racing, it’s been a phenomenal year,” said Feeney.

“It’s something I’ll be very proud of for the rest of my life — but that’s the way it goes.

“It’s the new system that they’ve got. You can have a shocker in the last race of the year and it all falls apart.

“I just want to thank everyone on my crew. Congrats to Chaz, obviously he had a great Finals Series.

“It’s a shame how it was all going down at the start and then our issues came along, so no matter what happened today, the thing was going to break down, unfortunately.

“I can’t thank my team enough, my family, friends, everyone that’s got my back.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’ll be hearing from me for a while, mate. I’ll be flying under the radar for a bit.”

Feeney wound up third in the championship, behind champion Mostert and Triple Eight Race Engineering teammate Will Brown.