Brown exited his pit box from his final stop under Safety Car with just over 15 minutes remaining, only to be confronted with a red light.
The points leader braked to a near-stop before the light flicked to green, allowing him to sneak out onto the track just metres ahead of teammate Broc Feeney.
Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton said he was alerted to the situation by a radio communication from Brown as the driver approached the pit exit.
“I didn’t know it was red because it wasn’t meant to be red,” Dutton told Speedcafe.
“The first I heard of it was Will saying ‘the light’s red’. I spun around as a Supercars official was making obvious that it wasn’t meant to be red and that it was OK.
“Will still braked and then it flipped over to green. But that almost cost Will that win.
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“On the Triple Eight side, it was possibly going to put him down to P2 and the other Triple Eight car to P1, but that was a close call.
“That was outside of our control but Will reacted really well, even though from my understanding it should have never been red.”
Drama during the final pit stops in Sandown!
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Supercars rules state that the pit exit is open at all times except when the Safety Car and line of cars behind it are approaching.
In this case, only Feeney and the #50 Brad Jones Racing Camaro directly behind were on the front straight, obeying 80km/h Full Course Yellow speeds.
The near-disastrous final pitstop for Brown was one the Triple Eight team had not intended to make.
A Safety Car period called to retrieve Brodie Kostecki’s stranded Camaro gave teams the option to duck in for fresh tyres.
While both Triple Eight cars initially stayed out, Grove Racing opted to take the gamble with its fourth-placed Matt Payne/Garth Tander entry.
The new FCY/SC procedures meant Triple Eight could react and pit its cars on the next two laps under the 80km/h conditions and resume ahead.
“The lads (Brown and Feeney) had worked hard to conserve their tyres in case there was a late Safety Car, and then there was one,” explained Dutton.
“Then the decision is, OK, we’ve got what we think are good enough tyres to fight off anyone who doesn’t come in for freshies.
“But when we saw a lot going in for fresh tyres, you can quite quickly make the judgement where we could come in and not drop positions.
“When that is the equation it’s a no-brainer to come in. But a few things have to fall the right way and some fast-thinking engineers to react.
“The pit crew were all set to go and either service the cars or not, but the engineers did a cracker job there.”
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