Jamie Whincup has 24 hours to feel safe, while Mark Winterbottom needs a big break if he is to usurp his rampant adversary for the V8 Supercar title.
Whincup's extraordinary streak of success became seven of nine race wins at Winton today taking his Championship lead to an almost unassailable 326 points. That means Whincup will virtually have to fail to finish tomorrow or worse case at least one race at the season-ending Sydney Telstra 500.
The epic Holden versus Ford battle that has raged all year continued today up until race start. Whincup and Winterbottom sat side by side on the front of the grid. Whincup got a better start taking the lead with Winterbottom ranging behind.
Then came a perceived gamble from FPR. A first lap safety car led to Winterbottom's Orccon Steel FPR outfit pitting straight away and banking on two sets of soft tyres to get them home. They didn't.
He got caught up in the pack but fought his way through to third, only to be pipped on the line by Irwin Racing's Lee Holdsworth when Winterbottom ran out of fuel. That said it was a well-deserved podium for Holdsworth and his Stone Brothers Racing outfit. Winterbottom finished fourth.
Team Norton DJR driver James Moffat made the most of his start on soft tyres and led the bulk of the race. He was unable, though, to hold out the late charges from the soft tyre shod cars and finished a credible fifth.
Whincup admits his surprise with the FPR strategy that took Winterbottom off his rear bumper.
"It was a pretty crazy race going on from where I sat. I was surprised to see car five go into the pits on lap one and I knew it was on from there. I focussed outside my windscreen from that point," said Whincup.
"It certainly changed the focus. (But still) you are out there punching out the laps but knowing he has got a little more fuel and a brand new set of soft tyres. I knew it was going to be close."
Whincup's TeamVodafone team-mate Craig Lowndes employed the same strategy as Winterbottom but from a very different mid-pack position. It worked for him.
"It was surprising that Frosty made that call from where he was running but for us we had nothing to lose and everything to gain," Lowndes sad. "It proved to be the right way in our case."
Winterbottom did not regret the call, blaming fuel for his bad luck, not strategy
"We missed the (fuel) number there somehow. We stopped early and out of sequence but after all the carnage that went on we got back to a position. I thought I had Holdsworth. It's cruel when it coughs on the line. But it is what it is."
Whincup's focus is still steely, the three-time Champion admitting to a pivotal day tomorrow.
"Tomorrow is going to be a huge day for the Championship. It will only go one way or the other. I started at the workshop in January and it has been a long grind trying to be competitive. It's going to come down to the next 24 hours. This time tomorrow we will have a much better idea."
Holdsworth has had a mixed season in his first with Irwin Racing and in a Ford after a long stint with Fujitsu GRM in a Holden. He hopes it sets the tone for the final three races of the year; and next year when he will drive an AMG E Class.
"I am absolutely stoked. Mid-year we went a bit south with results but in Abu Dhabi we found some form and got some race pace. It's been a rough run and hopefully we can push for results in what is left of the year," he said.
"We still don't have the pace of 888 and FPR so we were taking risks. We went back to basics and learnt a lot; now we are trying to take advantage of what we have got."
Lucky 7 Racing's Tim Slade placed sixth, with Jonathon Webb, Garth Tander, Michael Patrizi and Tony D'Alberto rounding out the top ten.
Michael Caruso and James Courtney were casualties in the opening lap melee. Courtney battled on with steering damage and Caruso did not finish.
Other casualties included Shane van Gisbergen and Will Davison, who were involved in an incident that included Jack Daniel's racer Tim Blanchard.
Both cars were eventually forced out of the race, with van Gisbergen apologising to the FPR driver