Reed Sorenson

Perched high between turns one and two at the Chicagoland Speedway, you’ll find a large Discount Tire Co. billboard with the glowing face of driver Reed Sorenson. At times throughout Saturday’s USG Durock 300, the billboard was the only place you would see a smiling Sorenson because the grueling 200-lapper had more than one frustrating point for the 19-year-old.

From start to finish the race was full of obstacles. After taking the green flag from the 19th spot, Sorenson’s Charger battled first tight than loose conditions in the intense Saturday heat.

By lap 45 and with one pitstop down, Sorenson guided his No. 41 Charger to the 15th spot. “It’s loose right now so bear with me,” he informed his team.

Confident that the car would come to his driver, crew chief Brian Pattie calmly read off lap times and coached Sorenson to stay focused.

Unfortunately by the time the third caution flag dropped on lap 77 Reed began to feel a vibration in his faithful ride and quickly alerted the team. With the yellow slowing the field, the 41 crew was able to spring into action on pitroad looking for anything that may be a miss with their car. As all of the bad luck flowed not even halfway into the event, it was now time for a victory and it came with the diagnosis of a vapor lock condition rather than something more serious.

“We guess that’s what it was,” Sorenson said of the issue.

“It was showing low fuel and it went real flat on the restarts but came back after a few laps. We had some kind of fuel issue but it just stopped after a while so I didn’t know what was going on. It seemed to be okay when we got going. I just needed a green flag run – I needed four or five laps or it ran really loose.”

With the handling condition pinpointed and treated the trouble for the day however was far from over. After making several stops down pitroad to fix the problem Reed then had to take the green flag in the back of the pack. Just laps after the restart a multi-car wreck broke out in turn four. Sorenson missed serious incident and had only minor sheet metal damage.

Within 20 laps, stops cycled through and Reed’s sporty Charger found the position it deserved as the 41 led the field around the 1.5-mile track.

Despite running on a different pit sequence from the remainder of the field, Sorenson’s Dodge was due for one final service stop on lap 146. The sometimes overlooked but always hardworking pit crew sprang into action and pulled out a 15.3-second stop, cycling Reed into the 12th spot.

The caution flag fell for the Jeremy Mayfield machine on lap 154 with many lead lap cars deciding to pit. Sorenson stayed on track and took the restart from the second spot.

On lap 159 once the field was green, he made the move on leader Martin Truex, Jr. and claimed the position across the front stretch.

Charging ahead with just over 20 laps to go, Sorenson’s Discount Tire team had overcome every curve thrown at them throughout the day. With the laps winding down, fate tossed in another obstacle with a caution flag dropping on lap 174 as they led the event.

“We were so fast on those long runs. When that caution came out I knew that was bad. We could have gotten back up there if we had more laps,” Sorenson said.

After charging on for the final 20 laps after the restart, Reed battled door-to-door for position. At the finish, he gunned his Dodge across the stripe in the 10th spot.

The Chicagoland race day was a tough one from heat to handling issues, accidents and restarts, Reed overcame all of the trouble and his team helped him rocket back to a solid top 10 showing which now gives him 11 top 10s on the year. He also continues to lead Carl Edwards towards the Raybestos Rookie of The Year title. With the finish from Chicago and some time off before hitting the track next week, Sorenson - and not his billboard - should be happily donning a relieved smile.

Waiting in the wings - New Hampshire. After a grueling yet positive weekend in Chicago, the Discount Tire Co. team is now readying for their next race at NHIS on Saturday, July 16th.