Halfway into the 2005 racing season Reed Sorenson has tallied a win, eight top fives and 10 top 10 finishes. He entered Daytona, the 18th event of a scheduled 35-race season, second in the championship point standings, only seven points out of the lead.
To the approval of his sponsor, Sorenson is gliding through his first full year in Busch Series competition.
Discount Tire Co.’s Vice President Michael Zuieback made the trip from Arizona to Daytona to watch the sporty Discount Tire Co. machine put on a show under the lights on the historic 2.5-mile speedway.
“Discount Tire could not be happier with the way this team is running. Reed is everything we could ask for - well spoken, a nice guy. It’s great to see the Discount Tire Dodge Charger up front,” Zuieback said.
As he eyed not just the points lead but a solid run on the sometimes troublesome restrictor-plate track at Daytona, Sorenson ventured back for his second go-around on the speedway. In February, the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates crew charged on and finished ninth.
“We had a good car in the spring. It’s the same car we took to Talladega. We got in a wreck there and had some work to do. Talladega is different than this place so we’ll take it easy for a bit and see what happens,” Sorenson said.
Practice was lined up for Thursday but rain knocked it back to Friday morning forcing another day full of activity with one hour of practice, qualifying and the 250-mile race.
After practice Sorenson’s crew chief Brian Pattie sat in the garage confident of a successful run.
“It’s good. It drafts well,” he said of the No. 41 ride. “We didn’t make a qualifying run but this car is better than the car we had in the spring, I know that.”
For qualifying, Reed soared his No. 41 Charger up to the eighth position.
Under a sweltering sun the Discount Tire gang suited up, set up their gear on pitroad and prepared for a grueling 100 laps of challenging racing.
After 32 laps were showing on the board Sorenson was sailing along in the draft in the 14th spot.
“Keep digging here, just be careful,” spotter Lorin Ranier keyed to his driver on the radio.
Ranier would play an important role throughout the 100-lapper on Friday night. Not the typical speedway, spotters had to stay alert watching to see which lane was moving the fastest and where any trouble may break out on track.
Just beyond halfway, the second yellow flag of the night dropped on lap 57. At the time, Sorenson found himself knocking on the door of the top 10 in the 11th position.
After bouncing around in the draft Sorenson settled into 12th with just over 30 laps remaining.
“It’s up to you man, we have a lot of time left. Just make sure you save that right front tire,” Ranier told Sorenson.
On lap 79 Sorenson dropped his No. 41 to pitroad. Just as Sorenson made his stop the yellow flag dropped after the second place car spun.
Stops cycled through under the yellow lining Sorenson up in the fourth spot on the restart.
“Keep your momentum up. We’ll use these lapped cars now,” Ranier said as Sorenson dug in on the high lane with 15 laps left to run.
The fourth yellow flag fell on lap 89 after Michel Jourdain, Jr. met the outside retaining wall. The yellow set up a seven-lap dash towards the checkers.
At the restart, Reed was ninth.
Sorenson dug in and charged on. With three laps on the board however the solid effort evaporated after the cars of Randy LaJoie and Jon Wood got together on the backstretch.
16 cars in all were involved including the No. 41 Charger.
The Discount Tire team was able to get the car back on track for the duration after an extended red flag period. The field took the restart for a green-white-checkered flag finish and Sorenson dug in to finish 20th.
Following Daytona, Reed hopped on a plane with Discount Tire Co. representatives Zuieback and Rob Wise for a trip to Chicago to participate in “Discount Tire Day” at the equally historic Wrigley Field.
The Discount Tire gang was to appear with a show car and be on hand to sign autographs on Saturday. Sorenson was also in line to make the first pitch at 3:05 PM.
Next up for Reed and the Discount Tire Co. team, a trip to the Chicagoland Speedway.
