{"id":798822,"date":"2026-07-14T02:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798822\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T02:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:44:22","slug":"supercars-news-craig-lowndes-not-surprised-by-triple-eight-ford-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798822\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Craig Lowndes \u2018not surprised\u2019 by Triple Eight Ford slump\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Lowndes
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCraig Lowndes is a member of Supercars’ TV team. Image: Richard Gresham <\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

Lowndes drove for the Brisbane-based squad for 21 years before parting ways in 2026 in order to remain with Chevrolet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Set to spearhead a Team 18 wildcard in the Enduro Cup, Lowndes is keeping a close eye on Triple Eight via his role in the Supercars broadcast.<\/p>\n

Although enjoying early success with its Mustang, the Red Bull Ampol squad has now gone six races without a podium for the first time since 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not surprised this is happening,\u201d Lowndes wrote in his column for the Supercars website.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always going to be a difficult year for Triple Eight, moving from GM to Ford.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally they\u2019re the leading team for their manufacturer, and everyone else is chasing their set-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, they\u2019re looking at Groves, Tickford and DJR (Dick Johnson Racing) to understand how to make the Mustang fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s evident that it\u2019s hit and miss for them at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt they\u2019re working hard in the background to understand the Ford and put more tools in the toolbox in the effort to close the gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw over the weekend that the cars were weak in qualifying, but were quick in the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drivers Broc Feeney and Will Brown appeared frustrated at points over the recent Townsville weekend as they qualified in the mid-field.<\/p>\n

Feeney\u2019s single-lap struggles were particularly notable, qualifying just 16th and 18th across Friday and Saturday before improving to seventh on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Both drivers moved forward in the races, albeit not able to record a single top five finish.<\/p>\n

Feeney frustrated by \u2018hard to drive\u2019 Triple Eight Ford<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBroc Feeney and Will Brown are right to feel aggrieved, but they\u2019re also part of the solution,\u201d Lowndes added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just get an engineer to put a winning set-up in the car, not knowing what the driver wants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a combination of everyone\u2019s input into finding speed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s frustration from the drivers, but equally from the team, sponsors \u2014 everyone involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose reactions put pressure back on the team internally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well familiar with the team\u2019s lengthy debriefs, Lowndes said the team will be \u201cdeep-diving into every little detail\u201d as it looks to turn around its form.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the very least, they have to get consistency back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about drivers who had great performances one weekend, but fall down the order the next. At the moment, that\u2019s exactly where they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had 20 years of strong performance. Now, like everyone else, they\u2019re searching for how to set up the car and get the best out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeney lost the lead of the championship to Grove Racing\u2019s Matt Payne on Saturday and is now 92 points adrift with two Sprint Cup rounds remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brown is seventh while Triple Eight sits second in the teams\u2019, now 132 points away from pacesetters Grove.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Lowndes is a member of Supercars’ TV team. Image: Richard Gresham Lowndes drove for the Brisbane-based squad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14593,13992,43,44,12357,41,39,42,40,7500,14594],"class_list":["post-798822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-broc-feeney","tag-craig-lowndes","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-slot1","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-triple-eight","tag-will-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}