Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen has closed on the Supercars championship leaders, but was brought back to earth at Townsville, after his triumphant NASCAR debut.
This week, van Gisbergen made a successful - and fleeting - switch to the US circuit, scoring his maiden US victory on a Chicago street circuit and winning acclaim from motorsport powerbrokers around the world.
In his first outing back in Australia, he's found the going tougher, finishing fourth in the 16th race of the Supercars series.
Starting fourth on the grid, van Gisbergen started aggressively and attempted a pass for the lead within seconds of the green flag. He undercut polesitter Will Brown on the first bend, but finished the manoeuvre badly positioned and was shunted into the wall at the next turn, falling to 14th.
Over the 88-lap journey, he negotiated his way through the field and, as one of the last into the pits, actually led at times.
With two laps remaining, he passed Cam Waters to finish just off the podium and closed on the championship lead, when previous pacesetter Brodie Kostecki struck mechanical difficulties and fell to 20th, after starting on the front row.
Kostecki's misfortune has ushered eventual winner Brown to the top of the leaderboard, with van Gisbergen, who started the day 110 points behind, now only 81 down in fourth.
The field face another 88-lap race at Townsville on Sunday.