Brodie Kostecki finally converted a weekend of promise into a win, controlling Sunday's nti Townsville 500 finale from the front for Dick Johnson Racing.
Starting on the outside of the front row, Kostecki cleared Ryan Wood at Turn 2 on lap eight and then swung the race his way with an early stop on lap 16. Leader Cam Waters chose not to cover the move, and once the cycle played out the Shell V-Power Mustang had a lead it never surrendered across the 68-lap race, coming home 9.3 seconds clear.
"The car had the pace in it and we had options," Kostecki said. "We stopped early but the car would have just carried it through. A really cool feeling to win on a Sunday." He described a race run to a metronome. "I didn't feel like I was pushing too much, I stayed in the same rhythm over and over. We'll celebrate this one for sure."
He celebrated a little too hard, brushing the concrete during a victory burnout — a minor blemish on an otherwise flawless afternoon.
Matt Payne turned a scrappy start into damage limitation, recovering to second and stretching his championship advantage to 92 points over Broc Feeney. "We started third and I got a bad start, but more points for us, a solid day," Payne said. "I really need to focus on it for the next race."
Waters completed the podium but rued the one that got away, his crew unable to get a full load of fuel aboard during the stop that let Kostecki through. Asked how much fuel he had left at the flag, he did not sugar-coat it. "I reckon it would be zero," Waters said. "We didn't get the fuel in the car, which was the shame. The car was really fast except for that fuel thing, but it is what it is."
The story behind the leaders was Triple Eight's continued slump. The team that has set the benchmark in Australian touring cars for two decades again left Townsville empty-handed, Feeney its best finisher and Will Brown recovering from a poor start after failing to escape the first qualifying segment. For a squad accustomed to fighting for wins, a weekend spent salvaging minor points is becoming an uncomfortable pattern.
Kostecki's victory lifts him to third in the standings, though he remains 187 points adrift of Payne, whose Grove Racing operation has turned consistency into a commanding lead. With the Ford runners now trading race wins between them and Triple Eight searching for answers, the balance of power in the 2026 Supercars Championship looks nothing like recent seasons.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/kostecki-storms-townsville-finale-as-payne-extends-title-lead). Visit for full coverage.*