James Courtney and the Holden Racing Team prevailed in a dramatic final race at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
After a 250km encounter packed with incidents and controversial penalties, Courtney was left to fend off Lowndes in a seven-lap shootout.
Lowndes had lost position to Courtney while saving fuel early in the final stint and could not find a way back by the HRT Commodore.
Shane van Gisbergen recovered to finish third despite an early drive-through penalty for a Safety Car restart infringement.
Fabian Coulthard and Rick Kelly, who received drive-throughs for restart and pit speeding infringements, completed the top five.
Jamie Whincup had been in the box seat to win the race until a pitlane penalty for the car controller touching the #1 Holden in its second pitstop.
Whincup eventually finished 15th after being further delayed by a clash with Michael Caruso in the closing stages.
The race was punctuated by a major accident for Jason Bright that saw the Team BOC Holden roll-over at Turn 1.
The former Bathurst winner emerged unscathed from the incident that also put paid to the chances of Garth Tander, Lee Holdsworth, Chaz Mostert and Scott Pye.
The final podium position changed hands three times in the final dozen laps.
Scott McLaughlin had appeared destined to take a second straight podium for Volvo before an electrical problem saw the S60 grind to a halt on the circuit.
Nick Percat was left to fend-off the remainder of the pack after the resulting Safety Car restart, but clouted the Turn 8 wall with just five laps remaining.
Van Gisbergen had restarted sixth, but made short work of Tim Slade and Fabian Coulthard before benefitting from Percat’s mistake.
Will Davison had also tasted the Turn 8 concrete earlier in the race; crashing out after a touch from James Moffat’s Nissan.
Lowndes leads the points standings after the first three races of the season from Coulthard, Van Gisbergen, Whincup, Rick Kelly and Courtney.
See below for the full Race 3 result
| Pos | Team | Driver | Car | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VF | 76 | 01:57:52.9386 |
| 2 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VF | 76 | 01:57:53.6044 |
| 3 | Team Tekno VIP Petfoods | Shane Van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore VF | 76 | 01:57:57.7960 |
| 4 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VF | 76 | 01:57:58.5962 |
| 5 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 76 | 01:57:58.8457 |
| 6 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore VF | 76 | 01:57:59.7336 |
| 7 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 76 | 01:58:00.5064 |
| 8 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Ford Falcon FG | 76 | 01:58:01.7922 |
| 9 | Norton Hornets | James Moffat | Nissan Altima | 76 | 01:58:03.6915 |
| 10 | Team Advam/GB | Dale Wood | Holden Commodore VF | 76 | 01:58:25.6431 |
| 11 | Team JELD-WEN | Jack Perkins | Ford Falcon FG | 75 | 01:58:11.1175 |
| 12 | Ford Pepsi Max Crew | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 75 | 01:58:14.9868 |
| 13 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VF | 73 | 01:58:13.7739 |
| 14 | Norton Hornets | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 71 | 01:59:03.8160 |
| 15 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VF | 68 | 01:58:38.0732 |
| 16 | Erebus Motorsport V8 | Lee Holdsworth | Mercedes E63 AMG | 66 | 01:58:16.5612 |
| 17 | Repair Management Aust R | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VF | 60 | 01:58:17.1955 |
| DNF | Walkinshaw Racing | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore VF | 71 | 01:51:02.7609 |
| DNF | Valvoline Racing GRM | Scott McLaughlin | Volvo S60 | 65 | 01:40:18.3527 |
| DNF | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VF | 13 | 21:32.3380 |
| DNF | Wilson Security Racing | Scott Pye | Ford Falcon FG | 13 | 21:33.5873 |
| DNF | Ford Pepsi Max Crew | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG | 13 | 21:35.0853 |
| DNF | Valvoline Racing GRM | Robert Dahlgren | Volvo S60 | 12 | 19:15.7356 |
| DNF | Erebus Motorsport V8 | Will Davison | Mercedes E63 AMG | 9 | 12:37.2811 |
| DNF | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Nissan Altima | 2 | 2:57.3482 |
2014 V8 Supercars Championship standings (after Race 3)
| Pos | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Craig Lowndes | 282 |
| 2 | Fabian Coulthard | 230 |
| 3 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 221 |
| 4 | Rick Kelly | 198 |
| 5 | James Courtney | 192 |
| 6 | Mark Winterbottom | 189 |
| 7 | Jamie Whincup | 174 |
| 8 | Tim Slade | 163 |
| 9 | Garth Tander | 150 |
| 10 | James Moffat | 140 |
| 11 | Michael Caruso | 133 |
| 12 | Russell Ingall | 121 |
| 13 | David Wall | 121 |
| 14 | David Reynolds | 120 |
| 15 | Scott McLaughlin | 117 |
| 16 | Jack Perkins | 115 |
| 17 | Dale Wood | 112 |
| 18 | Lee Holdsworth | 111 |
| 19 | Will Davison | 72 |
| 20 | Todd Kelly | 70 |
| 21 | Jason Bright | 66 |
| 22 | Scott Pye | 61 |
| 23 | Chaz Mostert | 51 |
| 24 | Robert Dahlgren | 39 |
| 25 | Nick Percat | 24 |
