MURRAY & LOWNDES 5TH AT SANDOWN 500

Cooper Murray & Craig Lowndes have finished 5th at the 2024 running of the Sandown 500 in the Supercheap Auto Wildcard.

After several practice sessions split between the drivers, Murray stepped in for the Qualifying Session following his successes at Darwin where he qualified 5th on debut.

The 23-year old fought through the drying session hunting for a Top Ten Shootout spot, but came up short in the end and qualified P18.

Lowndes started the Sandown 500 as the registered driver and had a great opening stint before handing the #888 over to Murray in P13 who had 80 laps ahead of him.

After the final stop for the Supercheap Auto Wildcard, Murray was sitting in P8 but made his way up into P5 by the conclusion of the Sandown 500 on Lap 154.

Murray, who drove the majority of the Race for the Triple Eight Race Engineering #888, excelled in looking after the tyre through his long stints and with mentor Lowndes, handed the program their best ever Race Result in the Wildcard Program’s history.

“That feels like a win, to be honest. An amazing day with the whole Supercheap Auto Racing wildcard crew, Craig did an amazing job and gave me a really good spot and really good position with our strategy and just had to conserve the tyres and bring it home. But then after the restart towards the end, it was a bit sketchy as well, having Cam Waters behind me, giving me a little nudge, but I was more than prepared for it. But overall, really to come away with fifth. It was a little bit chaotic at the end, it was fine until the safety car came out. That’s when I knew it was going to get hectic because I knew Waters was behind and he’s very aggressive. So just had my eyes forward and focused on the job and got it home.”