Brown detailed on Lucky Dogs that he was hit by Walls moments after a pit stop that included repairs to the rear diffuser of his Red Bull Ampol Racing Ford Mustang.
That damage had been inflicted amid the confusion when Safety Car boards and flags were waved at some posts in error on the opening lap.
Brown struggled for speed as a result but was unaware of the damage until being told by the team that his pit stop would be a long one due to repairs.
He emerged from the lap 20 stop in 20th on the road, directly ahead of Walls in the team’s new-for-2026 third entry.
“I get back out there and I’m raging, like a little bit angry at this point,” Brown recalled.
“So I get out there, warming up my tyres, Jackson Walls is coming down the main straight and I was like, ‘oh, I’ve got four tyres, Jackson’s just gonna let me go’.
Take the short survey.
“I come through Turn 2, come through Turn 3 and he shows the nose into four, locks up, hits me in the rear, my rear diffuser drops down again.
“Everything they just fixed, literally three corners into my next stint, my own teammate has undone!”
While noting “we get in a lot of trouble if you hit each other”, Brown could barely contain his laugher as he recounted the incident.
“I could not believe it. I was in the car, I was like, ‘guys, Jackson just hit me’,” he said.
Brown struggled home 17th in that race before banking a fourth, a 13th and a sixth in the remaining heats.
He led teammate Broc Feeney to the flag in Race 2, having undercut his fellow Red Bull Ampol driver by only taking two tyres in his pit stop.
Team manager Mark Dutton explained to Speedcafe post-race that Brown was told to let Feeney by, but only if he was holding his teammate up.
Brown affirmed Dutton’s explanation that no team orders were broken as Feeney’s charge faded during the closing laps.
“At the end of the day… we don’t force either of us to make a strategy,” noted Brown of the scenario.
“Marty (Feeney’s race engineer Martin Short) chose the strategy of doing four tyres.
“We chose the strategy of doing two tyres and, just in that race, our strategy worked out better.
“It’s not that we didn’t listen to team orders. When he got there, I was like, ‘well, I don’t really think I need to let him pass, he’s not on me’.
“He never got to my rear bar at any stage.”
Discussion about this post