The compromise was both Brown and his Triple Eight engineer Andrew Edwards being out of the country between the Darwin and Townsville events.

The pair were in the United States with Brown making a second-career NASCAR Cup Series start at the Chicago street race.

It was a short-lived affair for the Supercars champion who crashed out just three laps into a race won by the man he replaced at Triple Eight, Shane van Gisbergen.

Brown’s return to Supercars in Townsville coincided with a rare difficult day for Triple Eight on the Friday, which included a crash in opening practice.

He then qualified down in 20th for the opening race while teammate Broc Feeney qualified just 14th.

They recovered to eighth (Feeney) and 10th (Brown) in that opener, before Feeney went on to win both the Saturday and Sunday races.

Brown, meanwhile, was fourth on Saturday and second on Sunday.

It was a fightback that Triple Eight managing director Whincup was proud of, admitting that the US expedition had affected the Townsville build-up.

“We were probably a bit compromised, we had Will and Andrew in the US making names for themselves in the NASCAR world,” he said.

“It was a little bit compromised, but I’m happy to have those compromises if it means greater opportunities for our drivers, engineers, mechanics, and what not.

“We prepared as well as we possibly could. Friday wasn’t our finest day, but thankfully we had a great weekend.

“Looking forward to debriefing after this one and seeing where we went wrong Friday, and making sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Feeney is in the box seat to win the first-ever Supercars Sprint Cup, which will conclude at the Ipswich Super440 early next month.

Brown is still well in contention to defend his overall title, though, with the new Finals series meaning he only needs to be in the top 10 following the Bathurst 1000 to be in with a shot.

He currently sits second.