ON Sunday Scott McLaughlin officially became the first driver since 2012 to hoist the Supercars drivers' championship and Bathurst 1000 trophies in the same year, yet his achievement is still one surrounded by controversy.
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The DJR Team Penske driver went into the season finale at Newcastle knowing he would become just the ninth driver in the history of the series and first since Jamie Whincup to be crowned the drivers' and Bathurst champion in the same year.
He finished the season 562 points clear of Red Bull Holden Racing Team star Shane van Gisbergen in the championship, the same rival McLaughlin held off in the final laps at Mount Panorama in October to claim his maiden Bathurst 1000 win.
It was that win which has seen plenty of criticism levelled at both DJR Team Penske and McLaughlin.
While McLaughlin started the race from pole position after a record two minutes, 03.3783 seconds lap in the top 10 shootout, in early November Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) stewards stripped him of that mark for a technical breach in the #17 Shell V-Power Racing Mustang's engine.
That decision came after McLaughlin's team-mate Fabian Coulthard and DJR Team Penske were penalised in the wake of the go-slow safety car incident on lap 135 of the Great Race.
Coulthard was relegated to 21st while the team was handed a $250,000 fine and docked 300 points from their teams' championship tally.
Many felt the penalties did not go far enough, including a number of McLaughlin's Supercars rivals.
"You must understand that some people are going to be pissed off that a car and team that's been constantly found to be illegal continues to get meaningless penalties," Scott Pye said on Instagram last week.
"Not saying you wouldn't have won, clearly doing a great job, but who knows? It will forever be tainted."
READ MORE: Scott McLaughlin responds to his critics
Nick Percat went as far as to compare McLaughlin with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, who had has seven Tour de France wins stripped for doping.
"Even if it was once that's enough to bring everything into question. Lance Armstrong was caught once, but it ruined his whole career," he said.
Erebus driver David Reynolds told the Wide World of Sports he felt both McLaughlin's Bathurst win and championship success are "100 percent" tainted.
"It's been a very funny year, with all the stuff that's gone on, especially at Bathurst with the engine dramas and then Fabian holding everyone up, it hasn't felt right," he said.
"The whole year hasn't felt correct, it's been really strange. As far as I'm concerned, it's the strangest year I can remember since I've been in the sport."
McLaughlin, who finished 2019 with 16 pole positions and 18 race wins, admitted the criticism has hurt. But he said he is proud of what he achieved.
"I can't control what people say, I've given up on that a long time ago," he said.
"Personally it takes a toll, everyone says don't worry about it, social media don't worry about it. But at the end of the day you're a human and the constant barrage of abuse on you or team or whatever, it takes its toll," he said.
"But I'm so lucky I've got such a good base around me that I can keep it in check and I can go away from this world of Supercars and be a normal 26-year-old and just hang out.
"The last three weeks or four weeks, especially probably this week, it has been one of the hardest of my career just off-track-wise.
"But I'm proud of getting through it and the person that I have become through it and tried to stay, and that's the main thing."
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McLaughlin maintains that his Bathurst 1000 win, which came alongside Frenchman Alex Premat, is legitimate. Edging out van Gisbergen for the chequered flag ranks as one of his biggest highlights of the year.
"I drove my heart out and Alex did as well and we did our thing. At the end of the day the stewards deemed it fine and everything like that on my side and we are the rightful winners I believe," he said.
"We had a basically 35-lap sprint basically to the end ... that last safety car really helped us.
"To have that one-on-one battle with Shane was just the icing on the cake because I respect him highly. To win an awesome battle like that, titanic battle between a mate as well, was very cool."
McLaughlin was not without his supporters in pit lane, with Tickford's Cameron Waters saying he felt the criticism was "a bit of tall poppy syndrome going on."
"He's had a really good year and, obviously, the stuff that's happened, I don't think has really influenced what he's achieved this year," he said.
"As a driver, he's been driving really well, so it's a shame ... I wouldn't agree it's tainted, his championship."
While McLaughlin's wins ultimately stand, CAMS chief executive officer Eugene Arocca said Supercars is "obliged to review" the breaches at the Great Race and subsequent punishments handed out.
He revealed he will speak to Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer about the incident and the judicial penalties currently available to stewards.
While DJR Team Penske was handed a record fine - the maximum available to stewards - and was docked teams championship points - Arocca said " it doesn't pass the pub test."
"It's a personal opinion, but I just don't think it looked good," Arocca told the Herald Sun.
"I certainly believe integrity and fairness are important in any sport and what I saw didn't pass the pub test at first glance and I think the [stewards] decision makes it very clear that they didn't view that conduct as acceptable.
"I know the comments have been made that the whole episode tainted the sport. This sport is big enough and robust enough to move on, but if we don't learn from it then we are at risk of doing it again and doing it again and that is something that is not sustainable."
