Rookie Reed Sorenson has tallied three top 10 finishes after only four events this year. Looking to continue his hot streak, Sorenson and his Discount Tire Co. team packed up and headed south to his native Georgia.
Last year Sorenson ran strong all day, led for over 70 laps and nearly claimed the win at the Atlanta Motor Speedway before a wreck took him out of contention in the closing laps.
This time around, the hard charger was not just an expected contender but a favorite to claim the win in the Aaron's 312.
That was until qualifying.
Sorenson hit the track in his No.41 Dodge Charger but
before he even got a chance to charge for the pole, his transmission let go in turn two.
"I had it in third gear and the rearend locked up," Sorenson said.
His machine sat on the apron, received a push from a wrecker but still - nothing.
In fact, after loading the Dodge onto the truck, it continued to sit, stuck in gear.
The 41 crew finally unloaded the car and worked feverishly on pitroad but repairs couldn't be made quick enough and time ran out for them to attempt a qualifying run, giving Sorenson a Did Not Start, leaving him out of the field.
“We broke a transmission. I guess it got stuck between first and third and we had about 10 minutes to try to get out and it wasn’t budging,” he explained.
At 19, Sorenson is gunning not just for the Raybestos Rookie of The Year honors but the championship and missing a race and losing valuable points, isn't any way to win a title.
But, for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates' team managers Andy Graves and Tony Glover, the next move was an easy one: have teammate Sterling Marlin relinquish his FitzBradshaw Racing No. 40 ride and let Sorenson take over.
With the race time set promptly following Busch Pole qualifying, Sorenson’s crew frantically scrambled to adjust the seat in the Jani-King Dodge to fit Sorenson.
Once the green flag fell over the 43-car field, Sorenson dropped from Marlin’s original 28th place starting spot on the grid to the rear due to the driver change.
With his normal Discount Tire Co. crew stepping into Jani-King uniforms for the day, crew chief Brian Pattie coached his driver at the drop of the green, "It's probably a little tighter than you are used to. A top 15 today would be good but a top 10 is still our goal."
Sorenson guided the No. 40 down pitroad numerous times at the start of the event for fuel only but following a caution on lap 30, found himself as high as sixth while the leaders took on a round of complete stops.
Reed had a different ride for Atlanta after a freak occurance in qualifying. (Getty Images)
The #40 pits at Atlanta (Getty Images)
“We were just getting gas because when you’re that far back it doesn’t really matter. That way we could go a little longer,” Sorenson said.
As the laps clicked down Sorenson was doing all he could to gain track position while riding in the 18th spot. But shortly, he began to feel the effects of an ill-fitting seat made to fit his teammate Marlin.
“The seat was really off so I felt pretty uncomfortable. About halfway through the race that thing was killing me and now I feel like my body is broken in half,” Sorenson commented after the race.
With 88 laps to go the Georgia native refused to let his hometown crowd down, sucked up the pain and battled an unfamiliar racecar as he dug in with a steady run in the top 15.
Just as everything seemed to be in place for a solid run as he sat in 14th, Sorenson radioed his crew that he felt a vibration in his machine.
With 24 laps to go he dipped the No. 40 to the attention of his crew so they could check the left side tires. After getting back on track and circling around, Sorenson again dropped his machine onto pitroad, this time, to check the right sides.
“I was getting pretty excited there towards the end because we were running around 15th or so and I figured we might be able to get close, right there to the top-10. But we had a tire problem. We had a couple of loose wheels there at the end and we had to come down pit road and get those tightened up,” Sorenson said.
After getting the vibration remedied Sorenson held on for the remaining laps and settled into 19th at the finish.
“The way that I look at it, at least we got some points out of the day and we got 30 more races to come back and that’s plenty of time,” the positive and determined racer said.
Next up for Sorenson and the Discount Tire Co. CGRwFS team, a trip to the Nashville Superspeedway on March 26th for the Pepsi 300.
Reed climbs from the #40 after the race. Note the appearance of Discount Tire on the hood of the car. Despite only having a short amount of time after qualifying, Reed's sponsor still got its due. (Fitz Bradshaw Photo)
