Just above the cut-off sits Grove Racing’s Matt Payne, who is precariously poised 47 points to the good and the last driver currently locked in.
His teammate Kai Allen is the first of those on the outside looking in, 47 points below the line.
Then there is Tickford Racing duo Cameron Waters and Thomas Randle in sixth and seventh, 57 points and 104 points below respectively.
Waters suffered the biggest race-on-race slump of any driver in the standings, dropping from fourth to sixth after finishing Saturday’s race in 12th from ninth.
Despite sporting Larry Perkins’ iconic ‘Sawtooth’ Castrol scheme, which was famous for its last-to-first effort in the 1995 Bathurst 1000, there were no Sandown 500 heroics for Randle.
He started 22nd and finished 16th, confining him to seventh in the standings at the end of Saturday and needing a lot to go right on Sunday to be a title chance.
Randle and Allen each have hopes that rain could aid their cause.
According to the Beureau of Meteorology, there is a very high chance of showers, most likely in the afternoon and evening. Thunderstorms are possible too.
“It was a hard day,” said Randle on the Fox Sports broadcast.
“Didn’t qualify well, and we moved up spots but obviously didn’t have the pace of the guys like Will Brown. He started 15th and finished on the podium. Clearly a lot of speed in their car.
“Cam dropped out of the 10 as well, so I think we’ve got a bit of work to do as a team overnight. Maybe we need a bit of weather around tomorrow, which it seems like it’s heading that way.
“All guns blazing tomorrow. We’ve got, again, nothing to lose. Top four is going to be tough. A lot of things have to go right, but we’ll see what happens.
“If it rains and we can nail everything, you never know. There could be incidents on track, there could be all sorts of things happen tomorrow.
“Tomorrow is game day, if you like. Chaz (Mostert) is obviously locked in, so congrats to him and the team. Everything else is up for grabs.”
Thanks to winning Saturday’s race, Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert has locked himself into the Adelaide Grand Final.
Next-best is Will Brown, whose Saturday heroics saw him vault from fifth to be ahead of his third-placed Triple Eight Race Engineering teammate Broc Feeney.
Although Allen is close to making it in, he said he may need rain to be a factor having struggled in the dry.
“Just didn’t have the car speed,” said Allen, who started fifth and finished seventh.
“We were really struggling with a few things. I think Matt and I ran a faultless race, driving-wise.
“Strategy was probably the best we could have done with what we had.
“We need to really knuckle down overnight and get the two Penrite Mustangs fast so we can have a good crack tomorrow and get in the Finals.”
Asked if his title aspirations were slim, Allen said he is “still a chance” to make it to Adelaide.
“If you win the race, you’re in,” he said.
“Not saying I’m going to, but I think if we go out there with a fast car, hopefully a wet car, I think Matt and I can put it up the front and have a really good shot to see what happens.
“We’re fourth and fifth in the championship, it’s not over, anything can happen.
“Three of those guys at the front could have an absolute shocker tomorrow. A lot of mistakes happened at Bathurst when it was wet.”
Qualifying begins on Sunday at 11:20am AEDT, which will be immediately followed by the Top 10 Shootout at 12:10pm AEDT. Sunday’s race is slated for 3:20pm AEDT.
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