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Craig Lowndes has signed a new contract with Triple Eight Race Engineering, which plans to continue its Supercars wildcard programme into 2025.
The Banyo-based outfit has fielded an extra, Supercheap Auto-backed entry in the Great Race since 2021, with the programme expanding to three events this year.
Now, just over a week after announcing a new deal with Supercheap Auto, another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place.
Lowndes is already the longest-serving driver at a single team (except for owner/drivers) and the new, two-year deal will take him to 21 years with Triple Eight.
This year, he will pair up in the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 with Zane Goddard, who also competed as a wildcard at the Betr Darwin Triple Crown in the #888 Chevrolet Camaro.
According to Triple Eight’s contract announcement, “The renewal signals the Brisbane-based team’s intention to continue fielding a wildcard program with Lowndes for Supercars’ endurance events for the next two years.”
Lowndes himself remarked, “I’m absolutely delighted to be continuing my racing career with Triple Eight for the next two years and I’m excited to reach a 20-year milestone with the team in 2024.
“I’ve shared some amazing moments with Triple Eight over the past 18-and-a-half years, and I want to thank Jamie [Whincup], Jess [Dane], and the team for wanting to extend this successful partnership. It’s crazy to think we’ll be celebrating two decades together next year!
“When I retired from full-time racing at the end of 2018, I always said that I wanted to continue to stay involved by fostering the next generation of Supercars racers, which I’ve been fortunate enough to do through the team’s wildcard programme.
“It’s something that I find both professionally and personally rewarding and a way I can give back to the sport that has been such a big part of my life.
“For now, I’m really looking forward to the upcoming enduro season alongside Zane Goddard and can’t wait to hit the track for our upcoming test days in preparation for the Sandown 500 in September.”
Lowndes joined Triple Eight in 2005, its second full season in Supercars, delivering its first race win midway through that year.
He can now boast 58 championship race wins, 29 pole positions, and 130 podium finishes with the team.
On the enduro front, those figures include four Sandown 500 wins and two Phillip Island 500 wins, on top of a massive six Bathurst 1000 wins, the last of which he achieved in 2018, his farewell campaign from full-time driving.
The 49-year-old has a total of seven Bathurst 1000 wins, behind only his mentor, Peter Brock.
His haul of 14 Great Race podiums, however, is a record, while he has three Supercars championship titles to his name as well.
Lowndes floated the idea of retirement earlier this year ahead of his 30th Bathurst 1000 start but, assuming the wildcard programme does indeed go ahead in 2024 and 2025, he will match Brock for second all-time on that metric on 32.
Lowndes/Goddard will test early next month in the Supercheap Auto Camaro before action at Sandown begins on September 15.
CLICK HERE for Jamie Whincup’s comments on Lowndes’ renewal
