25 best Supercars drivers since 2000: #5 Craig Lowndes

As 2025 gets underway, Supercars.com is ranking the top 25 drivers of the last 25 years, continuing with Craig Lowndes, who comes in as our #5.

The man of the late 1990s with three titles, Craig Lowndes carried his success into the 2000s and elevated his status to legendary levels, even if a fourth drivers' championship proved elusive.

Between 2000 and his retirement in 2018, Lowndes claimed 61 of his 110 career wins, and six of his seven Bathurst 1000 victories. However, title No. 4 remained just out of reach, despite Lowndes boasting a remarkable record.

Lowndes finished runner-up six times, third twice, and fourth six times. All told, in 19 full-time seasons between 2000 and 2018, Lowndes finished in the top four on 14 occasions, yet couldn't bring home a fourth championship.

By 2000, though, Lowndes' legacy was secure. A three-time champion by age 25, Lowndes crossed the divide from Holden to Ford in 2001, leading to rollercoaster stints at Gibson Motorsport and Ford Performance Racing.

Roland Dane came calling, and Lowndes joined Triple Eight in 2005. He was an immediate hit, finishing second in his first season, before winning a second Bathurst and narrowly missing out on the 2006 crown in a controversial final day showdown with Rick Kelly.

That seemed the story of Lowndes' Triple Eight stint; while he fell short of championship glory, there was no one better on the biggest day at Mount Panorama. He reeled off three straight wins with Jamie Whincup between 2006 and 2008, added another with Mark Skaife in 2010, and sailed to 2015 and 2018 victories with Steven Richards.

Craig Lowndes' key stats since 2000

Years active: 2000-present

Rounds: 272

Races: 592

Best championship position: 2nd (2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015)

Best finish: 1st (61 wins)

Top three finishes: 201

Best start: 1st (36 pole positions)

Best Bathurst result: 1st (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2018)

The highlight

Only Whincup (125) and Shane van Gisbergen (80) have claimed more race wins than Lowndes' 61 since 2000, and we've chosen one Lowndes and Whincup shared as the former's greatest triumph.

The 2006 Bathurst 1000 was an emotionally-charged race, held in the weeks after the sudden passing of Peter Brock, Lowndes' mentor and friend.

Lowndes was in the thick of a title fight, yet had to pull himself off the canvas time and again in a dramatic race, headlined by 10 Safety Cars, to try and deliver a Bathurst miracle.

Whincup drove beyond his years to keep the #888 Betta Electrical Falcon in the hunt, but Lowndes had to hold off Kelly in a pulsating run home. It was a win that would've made Brock proud, and one that left Lowndes in tears.

The gravity of the result remains strong to this day, some even considering 2006 to be a greater occasion than the remarkable 2014 race. Ask Lowndes what his favourite race is, and he'll say 2006 was his most important, and for good reason. An extraordinary, unrivalled Supercars story.

Why we picked him

The stats don't lie; 61 wins, including six Great Race victories, and 14 times in the top four in the championship. It's a hell of a record, and while those ahead in this list won championships, Lowndes arguably made the biggest on- and off-track impact of the lot.

One of the most entertaining racers to ever grace these shores, Lowndes was a human highlight reel. Think Perth 2016, when he mowed down the field amid a bold strategy to win. No one else could have made it look so easy, and so fun, at the same time.

Lowndes has contested 592 races since 2000. How many times was he a factor? Well, he won one in every 9.7 races, and finished third or better in one of every 2.9. Simply staggering.

You could argue he could've raced on beyond 2018, but by then, Lowndes had literally and figuratively scaled every mountain. Satisfied, he shifted to co-driving, winning the 2019 Sandown 500 with Whincup, before becoming a mentor to rising stars in Triple Eight's enduro wildcard.

To think, this was once a 20-year-old kid passing John Bowe around the outside at Griffins Bend... although we should've known then how great he would become.

The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.