I can still win

But realistically, it will only happen if my teammate Jamie Whincup has a DNF at Sandown this weekend or in Sydney next month. And I can't foresee that happening because of the reliability and consistency of his driving this season.

My second and fifth places in Tasmania at the weekend have made my job a lot harder, especially with Jamie taking a clean sweep and maximum points. But I will fight to the bitter end. I'll never give up and never say die. It's going to be an uphill struggle, but I just need to win as many races as I can.

I've spoken to Jamie and he's still very mindful of the maths equation. If he doesn't score any more points this season he's still guaranteed second in the championship. But I know that won't be enough for him. Apart from the driver's championship, we are also just 24 points away from the team championship.

I don't want to dwell too much on what happened in Tasmania, but I will admit I didn't get the job done in Sunday qualifying. I had three green sets of tyres. I used one for warm-up, then put on another set and got caught up in traffic which is always a problem on a short circuit like Symmons Plains. With one final set left I got a clean run, but I just didn't put a solid lap together and ended up 15th on the grid.

I then had a discussion with my race engineer JJ (Jeromy Moore) and we decided on an early pit strategy which paid huge dividends. We had good pit stops on the weekend but a few teams had problems with the new crew rule that allows two extra people in pit lane. The problem is that it gets congested on the right hand side of the car.

The changes have been made for safety and health reasons. Our sport has a good safety record and we have to keep making changes to make things even safer. The teams will just have to get their heads around how to manoeuvre more efficiently. Nascar does it with seemingly a cast of a thousand, but maybe they have a better set up with more space. They also need the extra person because they have five wheels nuts rather than one central one.

Anyway, it's something that everyone will have to work out. I'm sure most teams will have it right for this weekend. Another lesson that will have to be learnt for this weekend is that two into one doesn't go. We saw a spectacular crash last year at the end of the back straight where two drivers tried to squeeze into the one slot at a corner where we are going 270+km/h.

I don't think there is a problem with the track, just the drivers. Hopefully they have learnt from their mistake. For me, my plan will be simple; win both races. It's a track I know and love and have had good results on in the past, so I have no excuses.