The Triple Eight Mustang driver was tipped into a spin after Macauley Jones knocked Kai Allen into his right-rear corner at Turn 1.

Feeney then stabbed the throttle as the Mustang went around, swinging wildly across the track and creating a smokescreen for those behind.

It resulted in heavy contact with the Camaros of Cooper Murray and Zach Bates, causing race-ending damage to all three cars.

Feeney’s decision was the talk of the paddock post-race, but the 23-year-old said he was simply trying to get out of the way of the pack.

“I just tried lighting it up to try get out of everyone’s way,” Feeney told Speedcafe.

“Obviously it’s very hard to know what to do in that moment, but I was just trying to spin back out of the way and I think Cooper tagged me in the rear and then Zach in the front.

“When I watch it back, l’m like ‘if I clamped it down, maybe I would have been better’ but in that situation, I feel like whatever you do is nearly going to be wrong.

“I just tried spinning it up to spin back out of the way. Ideally I was trying to get off the track, which I ended up a little bit further off, but some guys went through the grass and hit me.

“Sitting in the middle of the track with 15 cars coming at you is not that fun, so I just tried doing what I could to get out of the way.

“I would have been pretty lucky to survive that one I think.”

Feeney was cleared of injury in the trackside medical centre and described the contact as “pretty decent”.

“It’s just your head gets thrown around, I was spinning one way and then literally got hit spinning the other way,” he said.

“I had a couple of big impacts. It’s been a long time since l’ve had a crash. It’s only my second DNF and my first one was that one at Gold Coast which was decent.

“It’s been a while since l’ve had a hit, so I hope that’s my last one for a while.”

Feeney returned to the garage and was seen inspecting the right-rear of his Mustang in the Triple Eight garage.

“They think it’s alright,” said Feeney of his car, which was competing in just its second event.

“My big worry is obviously we go to New Zealand in a few days and I want to keep my car.

“The beauty of these ones with the clips, hopefully we can just do a rear clip and it will be all good to go.”