Newly minted GM homologation squad Team 18 announced Wednesday that it has snapped up the wildcard effort under a two-year deal.
Supercheap has decided to stick with fan favourite Lowndes, who announced in April that he’d remain loyal to GM when Triple Eight switches to Ford in 2026.
Triple Eight will have plenty on its plate next season amid its move to Mustangs, but it seemingly won’t include a repeat of the wildcard campaign.
“Unconfirmed at this stage,” said Whincup when asked on the 2026 status of its wildcard at the Ipswich Super440.
“We don’t have a commitment to run a wildcard in 2026 onwards. My guess is we probably won’t, but that’s still to be confirmed.”
The wildcard program began with Triple Eight in 2021 as a guerrilla marketing technique amid Repco replacing Supercheap Auto as the naming rights sponsor for the Bathurst 1000.
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Broc Feeney and Russell Ingall shared the drive in that inaugural year before Lowndes became the focal point of the program, sharing with a succession of young drivers.
Declan Fraser, Zane Goddard, Cooper Murray and Zach Bates have all had the opportunity to race in the Triple Eight wildcard.
Feeney, Fraser and Murray all stepped into full-time Supercars Championship drives the year after their turn in the program.
The wildcard entry’s best race result came in last year’s Sandown 500, where Murray and Lowndes combined for fifth place.
“We’ve been really proud of the wildcard program,” said Whincup.
“We’ve been proud of it the last three or four years, so fingers crossed this year can be the same.”
This year is the second in which the wildcard program has also included a sprint event outing for the young driver, with Bates making his main game debut at Ipswich over the weekend.
The 21-year-old starred on Sunday with third in regular qualifying and fifth in the Top 10 Shootout, before finishing 21st in the race having been the victim of multiple hits.
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