team protested, claiming that Kelly had deliberately taken Lowndes out of the race. The stewards, after deliberation, dismissed the appeal, saying that the drive-through penalty was sufficient punishment for Kelly. Furthermore, Lowndes and Triple Eight accused the HSV Dealer Team and the Holden Racing Team for bad sportsmanship – Mark Skaife was given a bad sportsmanship flag in Race 1 for blocking Lowndes, while Kelly's teammate Garth Tander was given a drive-through penalty for blocking Lowndes in Race 2. Some days later, Lowndes was awarded the prized Barry Sheene Medal, which was some consolation. Team Vodafone In 2007, the team retained the services of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes. Vodafone replaced Betta Electrical as the title sponsor. Whincup narrowly missed out on the Drivers Championship by 2 points, with Garth Tander and Toll HSV Racing Team winning the last race of the season in Phillip Island. In 2008, Whincup won the championship, and Lowndes and Whincup won their third Bathurst 1000 crown. During the 2008 Season, it was announced at the Hidden Valley round that Ford would withdraw its support from all but two teams (Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing) on the Supercars grid from 2009 onwards. Triple Eight was one of the Ford teams to be effected by the decision, despite proving that they were the top Ford team that year and would go on to win their third Bathurst 1000 and first drivers championship as well as being the head developers of the new FG Falcon which was to be introduced in 2009. It was estimated that due to the decision by Ford, Triple Eight lost $2 million from their budget annually. In 2009, following Ford's decision to withdraw support from all teams other than Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing, the Ford logos on the front of the cars were replaced by a stylised pink pig's head, referring to Hog's Breath Cafe, one of the team sponsors. The team ran new FG Falcons. Triple Eight Racing won fifteen of the twenty-three races staged during the championship, with Whincup winning eleven races and the championship and Lowndes taking four wins at Winton, the Gold Coast and Barbagallo, finishing the year in fourth. Due to the loss of factory support from Ford for the 2009 season. Triple Eight announced prior to Bathurst that the team would be controversially switching to arch rival Holden for 2010 onwards.