Guaranteed glory but Dane won't be drawn on Whincup or Lowndes Mate against mate: Jamie Whincup, leads teammate Craig Lowndes at Phillip Island. Being the coach of a team heading into a grand final is stressful enough - but imagine how taxing it would be if you were managing both title aspirants. That's the position Red Bull Racing boss Roland Dane finds himself in ahead of this weekend's Sydney 500 V8 Supercars decider. His two drivers, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, are separated by just 20 points heading into the season finale, with 300 points up for grabs across Saturday and Sunday's 250km races. Dane says the team will be fair to both drivers but admits he will give preferential treatment to either should the need arise. Whincup will take a record-equalling fifth V8 Supercars crown if he comes away with victory from the series decider, while veteran Lowndes is looking to break a 14-year championship drought. Further back in the field is the Ford Performance Racing duo of Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison, who both remain a mathematical shot at the title despite being 124 and 223 points behind respectively. Dane says the outright objective for his team is to win the title, regardless of which driver finishes ahead in the standings. "We've touched on it during the debrief last month at Phillip Island and we'll talk about it again this week," he said. The thing is that at the end of the day that you've got to be fast and try to make sure that you do a good job regardless. We've got at least one other car in contention as well, which is the FPR No. 5 car of Mark Winterbottom who is only 100-odd points behind. Craig and Jamie know that. They've been team mates here for a long time now, so they understand that first and foremost that the team needs to do its utmost to win. Dane dismissed any notion of favouritism between Lowndes or Whincup, who is the defending series champion, but said in certain circumstances, the team could be forced into preferencing one driver over the other. "Frankly all I know is that the team has a policy of being fair with both drivers, we always have been and we always will be," he said. Unfortunately racing can create different situations where sometimes it gives the appearance of favouring one driver over the other, but that's the nature of the business and the rules that we operate within. At the end of the day, there are occasions where you have to favour one over the other and then whoever is faster at the time or leading at the time gets the choice. The most likely scenario to favour either Lowndes or Whincup will be during crucial race pitstops. For the fourth time this year, there will be two compulsory stops during each leg of the Sydney 500 event in an attempt to mitigate the disadvantage of higher fuel consumptions for the Nissan and Mercedes entries. "If there are pit-stop windows opening at a time when there's a safety car and you have to stop both cars at once, then the second car in any situation like that is always going to be worse off than the first car," Dane said. When that happens, it happens. We can't change it, it's not within our power to do that. The drivers know that, the team knows that, it hasn't changed for years and years. That you have to deal with as it happens. Lowndes may be behind in points but will carry considerable momentum into Sydney, having tasted success at Homebush on both occasions in the past two years. By comparison, Whincup has arguably been the standout driver during the past six seasons, notching 67 race wins and four titles. But remarkably, the 30-year-old is yet to podium at the technical Homebush circuit. A fifth championship crown to Whincup would equal the all-time record shared by Ian Geoghegan, Dick Johnson and Mark Skaife. "It's a good position to be in, having both drivers in contention, that's what you dedicate the year to and that's what we're here for," Dane said. That's always the objective going in, and the last two years we've been first and second in the championship. That's what you set out to achieve.