Reed Sorenson cut his teeth on short tracks racing in the American Speed Association. But when he first hit the Bristol Motor Speedway in April he said the half-mile track was like nothing he’d ever seen before.
The unfamiliarity with the steep banking of Bristol wasn’t enough to tackle Sorenson at the finish. He guided his No. 41 Home 123 with Discount Tire Co. Dodge on to a strong third place showing.
Re-entering Bristol with well over half of his rookie season down the Georgia native has shown he’s in the fight for the long haul. Currently third in the overall driver standings and only five points out of the lead for the Raybestos Rookie of The Year battle, he’s tallied two wins and 10 top five finishes.
Charging on with a lot more racing left on the 2005 Busch Series schedule the last two weeks have been a struggle for Reed and his Brian Pattie led team. The cars and teamwork have both been strong but the finishes have lacked after parts failures ended the efforts.
With familiar territory in Bristol and eagerness to get back on the right track Sorenson strapped in early Friday to set out on a repeat performance on the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”
Throughout the two-hour practice session the No. 41 Dodge was locked in as one of, but for the most part, the fastest car on track of the 53 entries.
A late practice crash set the team back only by a matter of minutes. After pulling the secondary No. 41 Home123 painted Dodge off of the truck, it was clear it was second-rate only in terms of use. By the time the session ended Sorenson charged his hotrod into the second spot on the pylon.
Unfortunately rolling out the back up meant that the team would be banished to the back of the 43-car field for the start of the Food City 250.
Shortly after the practice run NASCAR informed the Chip Ganassi racing with Felix Sabates team that crew chief Brian Pattie would be unable to call Friday night’s event. After a quick shuffle teammate Casey Mears’ Nextel Cup crew chief Jimmy Elledge agreed to hop atop the pitbox.
Taking the green flag from the back of the pack Reed told his team, “I’m going to lay back at the start.”
“Pick them off one at a time. Just stay heads up,” agreed spotter Lorin Ranier.
By the time the second yellow flag fell on lap 36 Reed was doing what he planned by slowly clicking off positions as he crept into the 22nd spot.
Getting roughed up is just a part of short track racing and on lap 62 the “typical Bristol” lingo held true when Reed’s No. 41 spun in turn three.
“The 20 car just hit us,” Ranier informed the crew.
Under the yellow brought out following the spin rain moved into the area delaying the race for over an hour and a half.
Once racing action got back under way good luck slowly began to fall over the Home123 team.
The first step in the right direction came when Reed was the benefactor of the one lap rule. As he passed the pace car to regain the one lap that he lost due to the spin crew chief Elledge guided him into the pits for a gas and go. He pulled back on track 33rd.
Now back on the lead lap Reed tore through the field with his eyes hungrily on the top 10 and it took no time at all for him to be knocking on the door.
With only 71 laps left in the event a multi-car wreck broke out across the frontstretch.
Ranier quickly jumped on the radio and coached his driver, “Check up, check up, just stop if you have to.”
Sorenson halted his No. 41 on the high side just off of the exit of turn four avoiding all trouble.
“That was pretty good. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a spotter tell someone to just stop,” joked Elledge.
After scoring was straightened up with the restart on lap 186 Reed found himself 18th.
Within the last 50 laps of the race there were a total of five caution flags. Working together Reed and Ranier guided their No. 41 Dodge into the 11th spot at the finish.
“I knew we could get up there and then once we got a lap down I was discouraged. I wasn’t looking forward to trying to go back from 35th all the way back through the field again,” Reed said of his hard fought finish.
“From leading the board in practice and having the fastest car to getting the backup car out to not having a crew chief - and then in the race, we got spun out and got a lap down. We just worked our way back up through and got up to 11th. I’m actually pretty excited about it. We had everything working against us tonight and we ended up without a scratch on the car.”
“It shows what a good team we are here.”
Next week Reed and the Discount Tire Co. team will head west to Fontana, California. Earlier this season the boys picked up a fifth place finish after starting fourth.
