The Kroger 200 at the Indianapolis Raceway Park was a thriller for those closely watching the 2005 championship contention. Not to their surprise, fans of the sporty Reed Sorenson find their favorite right in the thick of things. Leading the No. 41 Discount Tire Co. team, crew chief Brian Pattie and driver Sorenson entered the IRP short track riding high off of a win just one week ago in St. Louis.
IRP was also an anniversary of sorts for the two. Just one year ago the winning duo made their debut together as Sorenson made career Busch Series start number one. He qualified a strong third and followed that up with a 13th place finish.
Easily jumping over his marks from 2004, Reed left IRP Saturday night with another solid top five run building on what is an already impressive rookie season. But, the day
-long effort wasn’t as easy as the St. Louis charge. An early practice crash –involving six cars in all – left the No. 41 Dodge with some minor right front damage. After the run-in Sorenson reported his car to be “A lot freer” making the 19-year-old “Feel like I’m dirt tracking it.”
Thankfully another practice session gave Pattie’s savvy team time to hammer down and tweak out any problems.
47 cars were prepped for qualifying and with Reed being the final car to turn a lap, no signs of the early damage showed as he pulled out a good one by claiming his second pole award of the year.
“We had a good qualifying run. That was pretty exciting for the guys to go out there and get the pole. We knew we had a decent car,” Sorenson said.
Leading the field to the green flag Reed settled in and led the first 50 laps of the event before Clint Bowyer crept in for the top spot.
Laps later the first caution flag of the day fell for rain. Pattie called the 41 down pitroad for the first stop of the night giving the pit crew time to get their job done. Getting their driver out in speedy fashion the 41 pulled out third of the cars that pitted.
The race was then held up for over an hour and a half waiting out the weather.
Once racing got back underway, the familiar Charger continued to battle for position. Lingering in the top three for the majority of the 200-miler, Sorenson had his hands full for the final 30 laps watching his rearview mirror and the car of Jason Keller.
But the Keller machine had nothing for Sorenson in the end as the 41 pulled ahead lap after lap.
Holding steady in third Sorenson trailed current points leader Martin Truex, Jr. and Bowyer in the rundown.
One final charge for the top spot fell with just five laps remaining. The yellow flag fell after Tyler Walker wrecked in turn four lining the field up for the final time in single file and poised for a green-white-checkered flag finish.
At the start Truex shot out to a strong lead leaving Reed in line to take over the second spot. Gunning towards the final flag Bowyer edged out the strong 41 by a car length.
“I made a move there on the last lap. When you finish behind the guys you are chasing in points it isn’t bad. We didn’t lose much.” Reed said.
“I can’t complain. That’s the best we had our car all weekend here so I can’t complain about that.”
Reed came home with a solid third-place finish. (Getty Images)
Crew chief Pattie reflected after the race on their year-long relationship and their current position in the title chase.
“He did an excellent job. To come back to our first event last year together - it means a lot,” he said.
“This is why I came here, to live through the last 12 races fighting for a championship and see how it feels.”
Next week Reed will lead the team to the road course in New York for the second and final road course event of the year. Just two days after taking the trophy home last week, the 41 bunch tested the curvy track.
“Watkins Glen will be tough. When you go to road course races you just have to go out there and stay on track,” Reed says.
