the 2009 v8 supercar championship series was dominated by the season long rivalry between the leading ford team, triple eight race engineering and its drivers jamie whincup and craig lowndes and the leading holden team, the holden racing team and its drivers, will davison and garth tander. between them they won 22 of the seasons 26 point scoring races. hrt won the most of the seasons prizes, winning the teams prize, leading the charge to holden regaining the manufacturers prize, the drivers combining to win the bathurst 1000 and the phillip island 500, but triple eight won the biggest prize with jamie whincup retaining the drivers' championship. whincup personally won half of the 22 races the two teams won together, the backbone of his title retention with his season beginning adelaide 500 as his centrepiece and lowndes chipped in by dominating winton and winning the non-championship event held on the australian grand prix support program. lowndes was fourth in the championship behind tander, but davison was the revelation of the season, stepping up to hrt after a strong season with dick johnson racing in 2008, davison pushed whincup almost all the way to the title until davison faded over the final two events at barbagallo and the new sydney 500.