Will Davison knows it sounds strange but the resurgent Ford driver is happy to be receiving heat after an underwhelming Supercars round.
The Shell V-Power ace will enter this weekend's Darwin Triple Crown determined to put a disappointing event at Winton behind him.
In what will be his 500th career race on Saturday - just the 10th Supercars driver to achieve the feat - Davison is relishing another opportunity at a big factory team after his career was at the crossroads in 2020.
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, Davison was abruptly left without a full-time drive for most of the season after his team 23Red pulled out of the series.
But back at Dick Johnson Racing, following his first stint between 2005 and 2008, the 39-year-old is making strides in his second season.
In Perth last month Davison broke through for his first race win since 2016 and he has been a regular on the podium and up the front in qualifying.
However, DJR suffered a low-point a few weeks later as Davison and teammate Anton De Pasquale both didn't finish higher than eighth.
"In motorsport things can very quickly turned so I've just always maintained that attitude and always trying to be the best version of myself," Davison told AAP.
"I had years in small operations, you were celebrating fifths like wins and no one ever gave you a hard time.
"I missed getting given a hard time and critiqued because that generally means you're going well.
"When you're getting critiqued and getting slammed for finishing second and third, things are going good.
"Winton was the only weekend in a year-and-a-half where we haven't qualified in the front five or six.
"We've had a great run of success, not enough wins, but right in the mix every weekend and that's bloody hard to do in this sport."
Davison came close to breaking his drought in Darwin last year, securing two poles at Hidden Valley, but finished second in the races.
He feels the team is in a better spot in 2022.
"It's not easy changing teams. We were two new drivers last year and we were very regular podium sitters bit still learning the car," Davison said.
"We took a lot of positives out of having three poles in Darwin, but we weren't quite strong enough in races."
The Darwin event will be the first time Supercars has held an Indigenous round.
All cars will carry Indigenous-themed liveries, each with different stories behind the artworks.
Practice begins on Friday, with one race on Saturday and two on Sunday.
Reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen holds a 281-point lead over De Pasquale in the championship standings.
