Texas brought the Brian Pattie-led Discount Tire team a fourth place showing last weekend with driver Reed Sorenson behind the wheel. Hoping momentum would carry them through the final two races of 2005, the No. 41 Busch crew packed up for their second outing on the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway with one goal in mind – to win.
“This is the car that we won with at St. Louis so we feel like we’ll do really good here. We tested Homestead for two days and feel like we’ll do well there as well. We’re prepared as we can be for the next two races so I think we have a good shot at it.” Reed said.
In the spring the team was well on their way for a strong top 10 showing under the Phoenix night sky before a late race restart bunched up the field and caught the No. 41 up in a race-ending accident.
“Our car was loose off of turn two the last time in the race but it was fast over in three and four,” Sorenson said, looking back.
Two practice sessions were tapped for Friday followed by qualifying and 200 laps of racing in the afternoon on Saturday.
“We got our car really good by the end of practice,” Reed reported.
“My crew chief wants a pole by the end of this year. We’d like to qualify well to get a good pit stall.”
And they did after Reed charged the No. 41 Dodge up to the fifth spot on the starting grid. In fact, if superstition holds any worth, the team ended up with the same pit stall that they had last fall when Jamie McMurray drove the No. 41 to victory lane.
“It’s the same pit stall we had last year and the setups are really, really close,” said crew chief Pattie.
Once racing began Sorenson quickly darted his Discount Tire machine from fifth into the top three.
But by the time the first round of pitstops shook down on lap 40, Sorenson entered the pits fifth due to a tight condition on his racecar.
The DTC crew made a minor adjustment and lined their driver up for seventh on the restart after two drivers decided to stay on track through the cycle of stops.
By lap 75 Reed continued to flex his muscle in the top 10 but the tight condition was more than he could handle.
“We just need the car to be better,” he said.
The halfway mark of the event came and went with the 41 still poised for a strong top 10 run.
With 24 laps remaining a yellow flag fell for debris and opened the door for a much-needed pistop for Reed’s Dodge. After entering the pits in the 10th position, the over the wall gang got to work and pushed their driver to eighth on the exit.
Just over 20 laps remained in the event once the field took the green flag and Sorenson was able to successfully guide his machine home to finish eighth.
“It was a good run. We would have liked to have been a little better but you can’t complain about a top-10,” he
said, despite the tight feel of his Dodge that lingered throughout the day.
“We had plenty of opportunities to pass cars and just couldn’t do it. We just needed the car to be better.”
Next weekend Sorenson, crew chief Pattie and the entire Discount Tire team will head to Homestead, FL following a recent test on the 1.5-mile track for the season finale.
“We’ll go next week, give them one more shot and try to win another one before this year is out,” Reed said.
Last season, Sorenson started seventh at the Homestead-Miami Speedway and finished a strong fourth in what marked only his fifth series start.
Reed leads a pack of cars at Phoenix on Saturday. (Getty Images)
