Lowndes was unstoppable across the Sunday race, out-classing Scott McLaughlin to win his first race since Queensland Raceway two years ago. The win came just hours after Lowndes ended a pole position drought that stretched even further back, to the QR round in 2015.

Jamie Whincup was a big winner in Tassie as well, capitalising on problems for former points leader Shane van Gisbergen to finish third and take over the series lead.

Lowndes comfortably led the opening stint of the race, holding off a brief charge from van Gisbergen in the first couple of laps before settling into a nice rhythm, a little over a second clear of van Gisbergen, Jamie Whincup, and Scott McLaughlin.

As the first stint wore on van Gisbergen started to slip back from Lowndes and into Whincup's clutches, leading to the Red Bull squad pulling him in for his first stop on Lap 14. McLaughlin followed a lap later, taking on a little less fuel and coming out ahead of his fellow Kiwi.

Lowndes waited until Lap 22 before surrendering the lead, emerging from his first stop well clear of a struggling van Gisbergen, but marginally behind the short-filled McLaughlin Ford. Seven laps after his stop Lowndes re-took the lead, expertly charging down the inside of McLaughlin at the hairpin.

Whincup went the complete other way in terms of strategy, pitting on Lap 26 to take on a big gulp of fuel, which dropped him back behind James Courtney in fourth.

The second round of stops kicked off on Lap 47, McLaughlin the first to blink. This time he had the longer stop, which meant he had little chance of getting around ahead of Lowndes, who stopped three laps later.

McLaughlin also almost lost second spot to Whincup, who pitted on the same lap as Lowndes and emerged from the lane right next to the Penske Ford. It was only thanks to his warmer tyres that McLaughlin was able to hold on to the spot as the pair duked it out on the run to the hairpin.

The top four settled into a rhythm through the third and final stint, Lowndes leading McLaughlin, Whincup, and Courtney. But just when it looked like a relatively straightforward finish, rain began to fall with 20 laps to go.

Thankfully for Lowndes it was never more than a sprinkle, the veteran able to stay out and bank his first win since 2016 by 2.3s over McLaughlin.

"I'm more relieved I think," said Lowndes. "We've been talking about how hard we've been working as a team. We've been pushing hard, and I've made no secrets, last year was up and down.

"This year we want to be more consistent. We want to be on podiums, I said that this car suits me, and hopefully we've proven it this weekend."

Whincup came home third to grab the championship lead by 11 points over McLaughlin and David Reynolds, while Courtney kept Walkinshaw Andretti United's promising season going with fourth.

Jack Le Brocq capped off a standout weekend with fifth place, the rookie doing so on genuine pace. Scott Pye finished sixth, ahead of Garth Tander, David Reynolds, and Nick Percat.

Chaz Mostert was 10th, a decent return from what's been a shocker of a weekend for Tickford Racing.

For the second day in a row van Gisbergen failed to turn early speed into a result. A problem with his car's pedal box caused the throttle to trail with brake application, making the Red Bull Holden difficult to pull up at the hairpin and costing van Gisbergen significant time.

By mid-race distance he'd dropped back to 14th, before a hasty repair job during his second stop failed to make much of a difference. He ended up way down in 25th, which dropped him to fifth in the points.

Fabian Coulthard was another frontrunner to be undone by a technical failure, his Penske Ford shedding a wheel nut on Lap 44 while he was running sixth. He was lucky to keep the car off the wall, limping back to the pits to take on a replacement rim.

He was ultimately classified 17th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB
2	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	2.3571
3	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	3.6000
4	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	5.5988
5	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	15.7860
6	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	16.5096
7	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	23.4884
8	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	24.2924
9	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	24.7776
10	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	39.3819
11	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	39.4912
12	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	39.9953
13	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	40.2848
14	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
15	99	Anton de Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
16	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
17	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	1 lap
18	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
19	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1 lap
20	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1 lap
21	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1 lap
22	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	1 lap
23	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
24	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1 lap
25	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X