Lowndes adamant his retirement not premature

Craig Lowndes is adamant that he's not calling time on his full-time Supercars career too early, despite putting in a front-running performance in Townsville.
The three-time series champion and six-time Bathurst 1000 winner confirmed last Friday that this will be his final season as a full-time Supercars driver, with plans to slot into an enduro-only role at Triple Eight from 2019 onwards.
The somewhat surprising news comes during what's shaping up as a well-crafted campaign for Lowndes, the veteran having rectified the single-lap pace woes that plagued his 2017 season thanks to a move back to the 2016-spec Dunlop tyre.
But while rubbing doors with the likes of Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin in Townsville highlighted Lowndes' enduring ability to run at the front of the Supercars field, the 44-year-old came out of the weekend still convinced that walking away is the right thing to do.
"What [team boss] Roland [Dane] and I did talk about was that point – some people will probably say that I can go for another five years – but at the end of the day you’re not going to be competitive at the end," he said when asked by Motorsport.com how it felt to be bowing out while still competitive.
"It’s making up the numbers which I don’t want to do.

Craig Andrew Lowndes OAM (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing driver living in Brisbane competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No. 888 Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering. Lowndes is a three-time V8 Supercar champion, a five-time Barry Sheene Medalist, and a six-time winner of Australia's most prestigious motor race, the Bathurst 1000. On 6 July 2018 he announced his intention to retire from full-time driving at the end of the 2018 season.