Whincup not ‘kicking himself too much’ over costly error

Jamie Whincup is not ‘kicking himself too much’ after a rare error cost Triple Eight a likely valuable one-two finish in Race 31 at the Coates Hire Newcastle 500.

The seven-time champion appeared on course to finish second behind team-mate and eventual race winner Shane van Gisbergen only to make a costly mistake on Lap 75.

Whincup locked a wheel on the run to Turn 1 which sent the #88 ZB Commodore down the escape road, dropping him from second to seventh.

The 36-year-old then lost another spot to a charging Scott Pye and eventually crossed the finish line in eighth.

With the squad locked in a fierce fight for the teams’ title with Shell V-Power Racing, the error has seen the Ford team extend its lead from 116 to 143 points.

Had Whincup finished second, the deficit would have been 77 points.

“I just made an error, just locked a wheel,” Whincup told Speedcafe.com.

“We were all pushing along, pretty hard, and I just locked a wheel and I was 50-50 whether just to turn it in and see what happens or go up the escape road and I just decided at the last minute to go up the escape road.

“I’m not kicking myself too much, like, everyone makes mistakes at work, and I’ve just made such a small mistake but life, it’s a tough gig, small mistakes are costly as far as points go so (I’m) disappointed but these things happen.

“The biggest factor was, I was in no man’s land.

“Shane had better tyres on, he was well in front; Scotty started to back off a little bit and was four seconds behind; I was literally in no man’s land and just lost a little bit of concentration so if there was more of a fight on, I don’t reckon I would have made that mistake.”

While disappointed by the error, Whincup says the team’s title fight is not over.

“It still can happen, for sure, and you know, anything can happen tomorrow,” he added.

“Losing a few points today isn’t… we’re not going to look back and go, ‘We lost a championship because I locked a wheel.’

“All championships are a combination of things over the whole year.

“(I’m) disappointed we couldn’t make inroads today but we’ll try again tomorrow.”

Whincup will return to the track for the final Armor All Qualifying session of the season on Sunday at 1120 local time/AEDT.