Right now, all Mark Winterbottom cares about is successfully defending his Bathurst crown.

Stealing back the V8 Supercars championship off Jamie Whincup is secondary.

But there’s a good chance the Ford Performance Racing star could do both in Sunday’s 161-lap epic, having had a few cards fall his way in the lead up.

A crash during qualifying on Friday means Whincup will start from 24th on grid – 12 rows behind Winterbottom in second.

The fierce rivals started 1-2 last year and finished 2-1.

Just 279 points separate them on the drivers’ standings, with Whincup’s Red Bull Racing teammate Craig Lowndes between them.

Three hundred points goes to the winner of the Bathurst 1000 – and a good chance the series lead, too.

“If he (Whincup) shoves it into the fence tomorrow it’ll be alright, I guess,” joked Winterbottom.

“We’re trying to win Bathurst.

“I think if anyone comes here tries to protect the championship, it’s pretty cruel to the co-driver because they’re coming here trying to win.

“If I told Steve (Owen) I’m just going to finish second because we’d lead the championship, I wouldn’t drive back in.

“For us, we’re going to trying to and win it.

“Whatever happens to them, happens.”

Winterbottom led the championship for 13 races earlier in the season thanks to some strong results and poor outings by Whincup.

But a slump in form forced him to relinquish it at Ipswich.

He hasn’t finished in the top five in his past 10 races – including his 10th placing at the Sandown 500, the traditional Bathurst warm-up.

“We’ve lost the lead because we haven’t been good enough, so you can’t rely on other people crashing or that sort of stuff,” he said.

“But if he does, so be it I guess. We’ll talk about it after!”