Craig Lowndes bid farewell to #888 at Sandown. Image: Supplied
Lowndes completed his final track duties with the squad during a ride day at Sandown last Monday, where 22-year-old son Levi jumped in as passenger for the last run.
Triple Eight ran three Red Bull Ampol Racing cars on the day – its #1 Will Brown and #88 Broc Feeney race cars, as well as its wildcard chassis featuring the #888.
Lowndes was allocated the team’s flagship number when he joined the squad 21 years ago.
Rather than hand it on when he retired from full-time driving at the end of 2018, the team has reserved it for Lowndes’ co-driving and wildcard outings since.
The #888 Red Bull Camaro at Sandown wore Will Brown’s name. Image: Speedcafe
“The number has been great for me. It’s always been allocated to me since I joined the team in ’05,” Lowndes told Speedcafe.
“I’ve been lucky throughout my career to have some good numbers, like #00 and #888, but it’s one of those things that’s aligned with the team.
“If Broc or Will run #888 next year, I hope they do it credit. It’s the team’s decision, so we’ll see what happens. But it’s been an iconic number for me for two decades now.”
Triple Eight boss Mark Dutton told Speedcafe there’s no current plan to use #888 next year, with a decision to come following the Adelaide Grand Final.
The team still has both its drivers in the fight for the drivers’ championship, hoping to win the right to run the #1 that Brown has campaigned in 2024.
Feeney took over the #88 from Jamie Whincup in 2022 while Brown adopted #87 when he joined the team last year and is a logical heir apparent to #888.
Will Brown is a logical heir to #888. Image: Speedafe
“It’s not a plan, not at this stage,” Dutton told Speedcafe of reallocating #888.
“Maybe, but we’ve got to see where we end up. We don’t want to count any chickens, we don’t know what numbers will be on the cars.
“Hopefully we’ll do a really good job in Adelaide and it’s an even harder decision to make. We’ll wait until then.”
Triple Eight will expand to three Supercars Championship entries next year, as SCT Motorsport moves its entry from Brad Jones Racing to the Brisbane-based team.
Coincidentally, BJR ran the #888 in the Supercars Championship prior to Triple Eight striking a deal for it ahead of the squad’s first full season in 2004.
Should Triple Eight not opt to run the number next year they’d need to request it be put on hold by Supercars or risk losing it to another team.
Special surprise for Lowndes’ last Triple Eight laps
As for what number Lowndes will adopt for the Team 18 wildcard next year, Lowndes said discussions are yet to occur.
“We haven’t actually talked about that yet,” said Lowndes. “I’ll talk to Charlie [Schwerkolt] and Team 18 and see what we’re going to do.”
The #15 with which Lowndes won his first two Supercars titles with the Holden Racing Team is notably among the numbers not currently in use.
For the record, Lowndes completed his last Triple Eight laps in car #1, as the #888 Camaro was parked midway through the ride day with an engine issue.
