Scott McLaughlin won Race 1 of 2019 Adelaide 500, pushing his Mustang to a race win in the car's debut.
The DJR Penske driver performed really well from start to finish and had a comfortable lead of 12.9651 seconds ahead of Jamie Whincup.
It's also the first time that reigning champion Scott McLaughlin took the win in Adelaide, adding to his tally of 25 wins and being the first driver to win with Mustang since Allan Moffat's victory at Oran Park in 1972.
Shane van Gisbergen rounded off the podium, with the Top 6 completed by 3 other Mustangs of Will Davison, Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard.
Coulthard finished 6th, despite a 10-second penalty due to a false start. He lost his lead to his teammate after Whincup pitted on lap 19, enabling McLaughlin to build a six second gap.
He continued to grow the gap, reaching 9 seconds lead halfway through 250 km race and 15 seconds after Whincup pitted for second time but reduced to 12 at the end of the race.
"That one’s for you Ford fans, first weekend for the Mustang," he said.
"We’re here, we’re here to party and we’re going to have a good time.
"It was really tough, but cooling and all that stuff was really good for us and I just brought it home.
"I’m really happy with the car. It’s a great start. We don’t have number one on the car but we’re number one today, it’s a great start."
The Triple-Eight drivers were the only to push the Holden into Top 6, as they expressed their concerns:
"We didn’t get the best start. Fabs jumped and I went ‘oh, are we going, or are we not?! I had the big panic and lit it up," Whincup, who started alongside Coulthard, said.
"The car was good and the team did a good job of keeping us cool in there as well, so I don’t feel too bad at the moment."
"It was a tough one, we didn’t quite have the pace, but congrats to Scotty and his team," added Gisbergen.
"To come out with a new car and dominate is pretty impressive. We’ve got to catch up now."
Van Gisbergen finished 15 seconds behind his 2018 rival, while Mostert put a fantastic performance, eyeing an opportunity on passing Gisbergen but finished fifth due to pitstop, albeit starting from 12th on the grid.
Will Davison was best of the rest for Tickford in Top 6, trying to catch Gisbergen in final laps.
Top 10 was completed by Holden drivers, with Nick Percat ahead of Dave Reynolds, Mark Winterbottom, James Courtney and Rick Kelly.
There was a contact at Turn 7 between Scott Pye and Lee Holdsworth, as the latter got into tyre barriers before getting collected by Scott Pye.
Holdsworth got out of the tyre barriers and finished 21st ahead of Cam Waters, who ran 4th but was forced to pit under the extreme-heat rule, as the Tickford driver experienced the coolbox system issue, dropping down by a lot of laps and being classified last. Scott Pye was the only retirement of the race due to the Turn 7 incident while Macauley Jones didn't enter due to Practice 4 crash.
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