Tears, well-wishes and two fourth place finishes - it's been a bigger Supercars weekend than normal for Holden star Craig Lowndes.
The 44-year-old announced on Friday ahead of the Townsville 400 that 2018 would be the final full-time season of his glittering Supercars career.
He then had to refocus, put his helmet on and get back to his day job.
In the end Lowndes wasn't able to claim a victory in either of the 200km races at Reid Park but walks away believing he is right in the hunt for a fourth career championship.
While he has dropped one place on the championship standings to fifth, Lowndes expects with the retirement decision done and dusted he can now just focus on racing and winning.
"It's one of those things when you make an announcement like that it's always going to be hard," the six-time Bathurst champion told AAP.
"We had to switch on and off a little bit, emotionally we had to put it behind us. I think we did a good job this weekend."
Next up on the Lowndes' farewell tour will be a trip to his team's home track at Queensland Raceway for the Ipswich SuperSprint on July 20 to 22.
No-one has more than Lowndes' 12 race wins at the circuit and he's hopeful it will once again be kind to him.
"We've had great results there and looking forward to moving on," he said.
"We go away from this weekend strong, happy and we're making progress with the car."
