The Darwin Triple Crown, in years gone by, has arguably been the toughest award to win in the Supercar season due to its multi-leg element.
In its original guise, winning the Triple Crown required you to win all three races and top qualifying.
In instances where there were only two races, topping the Top 10 Shootout was key to winning the Triple Crown.
Before this year, the Triple Crown had only been won twice. Scott McLaughlin did it in 2019, topping the shootout and the two races that year.
Jamie Whincup claimed the Triple Crown in 2020 during the COVID-19 era when it was awarded on points accumulated.
In a period when Supercars is as competitive as it is, Feeney’s feat was uber impressive. He topped qualifying for Races 1 and 2 and went on to win them both.
A day later, he was quickest in the Top 10 Shootout and then won the 200km finale.
For all intents and purposes, he won the Triple Crown the hard way. However, the record book will say he did it on points accumulation.
That prompted Feeney to suggest Supercars should revert to the original format.
That obviously comes with its challenges. Once the first qualifying session is out of the way, it takes the contenders from 25 to one. That’s a hard storyline to sell.
For organisers, it’s a trade-off between building a narrative and ensuring that there is a winner at the end of the weekend versus giving drivers one of the toughest tasks on the calendar.
In an age where some fans want to see round winners celebrated, the Triple Crown offers a rare opportunity to do just that.
At the same time, the identity crisis the Triple Crown has gone through over the past five or six years hasn’t helped its cause when the rules change every so often.
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