Craig Lowndes' farewell weekend begins on bizarre note

Craig Lowndes’ farewell weekend has gotten off to a frustrating start after a bizarre pit stop during a safety car ruined his race.

A safety car on lap 42 following Fabian Coulthard’s dive into a wall brought chaos as cars piled up in the Newcastle street circuit’s tight pit lane.

Expecting Scott Pye to keep rolling in as Walkinshaw double-stacked, Lowndes moved forward and rode up on the rear of the Holden in front of him.

Lowndes limped to his pit stop with damaged steering and his frustrations boiled over as he slammed his steering wheel and swore into his helmet.

Making matters worse, before it was decided to wheel him into the garage one of his tyres was driven down pit lane by Ford’s Mark Winterbottom.

But the issues all came down to Lowndes’ collision, with the veteran initially appearing to place some blame on Pye.

“I am (frustrated). Fast lane’s not wide enough. I followed Scotty Pye in and he stopped in the fast lane,” he said as he spent seven laps in the garage.

Lowndes finished 23rd and had changed his tune after the race, conceding he “should’ve been a little bit more” conversative behind Pye.

“I actually thought I had enough room, but it looks like my front-left just caught the back of Scotty’s rear-right,” he said.

“I was frustrated when I got out because we were conserving fuel, the car was working well, we were really looking forward to that next stop.

“It came a little earlier than we wanted. We wanted another four or five laps, but of course with Fabian’s incident we had to call it.

“It is what it is, we’ll rebuild it and get on with it tomorrow.”

Pye said he was cautious of the tight space but felt Lowndes may have focused too much on his left side and not his right.

“There’s not a lot of room to get in and if you tighten it up too much, then I take my boys out,” he said.

“I kind of stopped and I tried to keep the lane clear, but he hit me pretty hard. Everyone else managed to come through, but I think Craig was maybe a little bit close where I got on the brake.

“I tried to pull up square as well, but it is really tough, Craig was in there, the first car behind me and obviously I stopped pretty quick and realised that’s where I’m going to stop and bang, he hit me. Disappointing for Craig.”

Lowndes will retire as a full-time driver after tomorrow’s final 250km race, with the stage set for a nail-biting series finale after Shane van Gisbergen snatched a last-gasp win over title rival Scott McLaughlin.

Holden’s van Gisbergen cut McLaughlin’s series lead to just two points with one race left after passing the Ford gun – who was running out of fuel – on the 95th and final lap to claim line honours by almost four seconds.

The 2019 title will now be decided by Sunday’s 95-lap race on the tough 2.6km street circuit.

Aiming for his maiden Supercars title, McLaughlin came into the final round with a 14-point championship lead over 2016 champion van Gisbergen to ensure the closest season finish in a decade.

But it got even closer thanks to van Gisbergen’s late heroics as fellow Kiwi McLaughlin nursed his ailing Ford around the final two laps, dramatically running out of fuel as he crossed the finish line.

“What a finish. I didn’t see it coming. I thought he (McLaughlin) was home and hosed,” van Gisbergen said.

“Then I saw he was backing off with two laps to go. It’s now winner takes all.”

with AAP