Lowndes relieved to clear air on future

After more than six months of ‘frank chats’ with Triple Eight boss Roland Dane, Craig Lowndes said it was a relief to publicly announce plans to retire at the end of 2018.

Although in the first year of his latest two-year contract with Triple Eight, Lowndes and Dane confirmed this morning that the veteran will revert to co-driving duties next season.

Lowndes held back tears as he delivered the news to the media at the Townsville circuit this morning.

Lowndes embraces wife Lara after the press conference

“Relieved, to be honest,” he said when asked how he felt to have the news out.

“We’ve been sitting on this for a couple of weeks and everywhere I’ve travelled, everywhere I’ve been, the fans have been fantastic as normal.

“Obviously for us it’s timely to be able to get this out, to be able to spend the next six months enjoying what is Supercars and where we go and what we do.

“Once both Roland and I made that decision about stepping down and retiring from full-time driving, we wanted to get it out earlier rather than later, so we can all get organised for next year.”

Lowndes has been at Triple Eight since 2005, joining the team for its second full-time Supercars season.

Together, they have won five Bathurst 1000s and finished in the championship’s top four each year until 2017.

“Some of the team members have been there longer than I have, and to see what Triple Eight’s created, what we’ve been able to do as a collective team, has been fantastic,” he said.

“I said to them, 'I feel like I’m a big part of the family'.

“Triple Eight has always, and Roland has always, had that sense within the team, and to look at the faces of the time that we’ve spent in Triple Eight, they were very emotional.

“I saw some of the toughest people that we’ve got in our team tear up, so for me it’s great to be able to announce it.

“We can now hopefully put it behind us and get on with obviously the rest of this weekend, but beyond to 2018, and they’re as motivated as I am now to finish the season off on a high.”