Chaos and Broc Feeney reigned as wet weather and hot tempers turned the Supercars finals series on its head at the Sandown 500.
Feeney had a largely uneventful drive as he claimed his 13th victory of the season in Sunday's 250km race from pole.
But behind him, the slippery conditions caused carnage among the chasing pack, with Grove Racing rookie Kai Allen the day's biggest beneficiary at the expense of teammate Matt Payne.
The historic 3.1km circuit is renowned for having the least grip of any racetrack on the Supercars roster. So a torrential shower combining with an oil spill from earlier in the day proved a recipe for spins, offs and shunts galore.
Payne started the day at fourth in the competition standings, just within the cut-off for the four-driver grand final in Adelaide in two weeks' time.
Allen, fifth in the standings and two places behind Payne in the race, watched on as the New Zealander went door-to-door with fellow finals contender Cam Waters with 31 laps to go.
Waters, needing a win to qualify for the finale, was still seeing red after receiving a five-second penalty for an earlier run-in with Will Brown.
The Tickford ace tried to muscle past Payne at turn four and in the contact punctured a tyre, while the Grove Racing man suffered a steering issue.
Payne's wounded Mustang, losing a second per sector, fell back to 22nd.
Waters pulled back into the pits, finishing in 21st.
Allen sped ahead into a sixth-place finish and an improbable grand-final berth in his rookie Supercars season.
It was a devastating end to a stellar season for Bathurst 1000 winner Payne and his feelings for Waters were raw after the race.
"I just feel like it was a bit rude, and I feel like it's pretty common with racing someone like that," Payne said.
"That's the just the way he wants to race. I think a lot of people know that in the paddock."
For his part, Waters was bemused by Payne's insistence not to let him pass, given he would still have been on track for a finals berth.
"He hit me at the start and really upset me, so it was game on from there," he said.
"Obviously it was bad to have both cars broken, but for me I had to have full attack, had to try to be in front of him.
"Not really sure why he raced me so hard when he didn't have to."
Also through to Adelaide were Chaz Mostert and Brown.
Mostert had already punched his ticket with a win in Saturday's 250km race, so the pressure was already off when he lost control on lap 40 and slammed into the turn four tyre wall. Still, he managed to recover to fourth place.
But arguably the best drive of the race once again went to Brown, following another shocker in qualifying.
After recovering from 15th to second on Saturday, the reigning series champion jumped 14 spots to finish third.
Anton De Pasquale held onto second spot, while Brodie Kostecki was fifth.
At the top of the standings, Feeney will start the three-race decider in Adelaide with a 20-point buffer on Mostert, with Brown 15 points further back and Allen another 15 points behind him.
RACE 31 RESULTS:
1. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
2. Anton De Pasquale (Team 18)
3. Will Brown (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
4. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
5. Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing)
GRAND FINAL STANDINGS:
1. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
2. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United) -20 points
3. Will Brown (Triple Eight Race Engineering) -35pts
4. Kai Allen (Grove Racing) -50pts
