Proudly donning their Discount Tire Co. colors the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Busch Series team trekked to the Talladega Superspeedway this week. Last season their hard-charging driver Reed Sorenson claimed a strong runner-up effort in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race.
Adding fuel to their raging comeback fire after an unexpected 32nd place finish in Phoenix, in the previous restrictor plate race of 2005 at the season-opening Daytona, Sorenson and crew claimed a ninth place showing.
They entered Talladega with the same machine.
Practice and qualifying were both on Thursday again this week and Sorenson easily sailed his No. 41 Dodge Charger to the 20th spot on the starting grid during time trials.
“Qualifying really isn’t anything here. We had a good qualifying run at Daytona with the same car. We aren’t really sure why we ran like we did. We geared the car for running with a pack and it was pretty good. We just weren’t set for a qualifying run. We’ll race strong though,” the rookie explained.
“I think we’re going to get a top 10 but you have to stay out of everything.”
Confident that he had a strong car, Sorenson then readied for the 117-lap race.
But, due to the new impound procedure; the Busch garage was closed Friday giving Sorenson yet another day off. Instead of taking advantage of the free time the 19-year-old opted to use the day as a chance to observe and learn from watching the Nextel Cup practice session.
“I just stuck around here,” he said.
24 hours passed with the impound procedure falling into effect and then, rain crept into the Talladega area on Saturday and pushed the start time of the Aaron’s 312 back even longer.
Three hours after originally planned, the engines finally fired. The cars ran their first laps under the caution flag in order to help dry some lingering damp spots on the racing surface.
With eight laps on the board the full green finally dropped and it didn’t take long for three-wide racing to ensue. After 13 laps Sorenson maintained position in the 20th position.
Hi steady position however didn’t last long.
On lap 17 in turn one the cars of Mike Wallace and J.J. Yeley made contact causing a jaw dropping multi-car wreck involving a total of 17 cars.
Including Sorenson’s No. 41 Dodge.
“I was happy. I had it cleared and next thing, I’m in the wall,” Sorenson said.
“I don’t know what happened. I guess I got my taste of speedway racing here.”
The Discount Tire Co. Dodge pulled into the garage area to repair the right side and the rear end of the car. Cosmetic damage however wasn’t all that they had to tackle. The rear housing also needed repairs.
A red flag period followed in order for NASCAR to clean debris from the accident scene. The 41 crew, unable to work on the car under the red flag, assessed the damage and gathered parts so they could quickly get to work once the flag was lifted.
After a 17-minute delay, the green flag fell.
Sorenson’s hard-working crew hammered away and got their driver back on track within 16 laps. Once rejoining the race Sorenson jumped to the 29th position.
A caution promptly fell giving Sorenson a chance to dip to the pits and visit his crew for some more minor tweaking on the car.
The restart fell on lap 39 and Sorenson radioed his spotter, “Watch the lead cars. I’ll handle myself. Just watch ahead of me.”
With rain in the area and another furious storm brewing on track, Sorenson played his cards right by simply staying focused on the track ahead.
On lap 54 a four-car wreck broke out handing the 41 gang the free pass to gain a lap back. Now 15 laps down, Sorenson ran in the 28th position.
A short yellow fell for rain on lap 64. Sorenson again, was the one lap beneficiary and jumped another spot to 27th over the Sterling Marlin entry.
With three one lap benefits awarded to them in all crew chief Brian Pattie keyed the radio and told his driver that he was just six laps away from passing Michael Waltrip, who had already dropped out of the event, for the 26th position
Unfortunately, just before taking the green flag for a restart on lap 79 Sorenson radioed to his Discount Tire crew, “She’s smoking. There’s no oil pressure,” he said of the normally strong engine.
Possibly due to the damage in the earlier wreck, the ailing engine clicked off over a dozen more laps before the No. 41 was unable to continue. With 23 laps remaining Sorenson’s team was forced to relinquish their 26th position.
After a green-white-checkered flag finish the race was extended from 117 laps to 120. Sorenson was scored in the 32nd spot in the end.
“It was just a tough day," Sorenson said.
Next up for Reed and the Discount Tire gang, a trip under the lights to the track ‘too tough to tame’ in Darlington, SC where last year, they claimed a ninth place run in the fall.
“I think we’ll be really good there. We’re taking the same car we raced last year, the same car we took to Bristol. We’re going to take the same setup we had last year too, just fine tune it from there,” an always positive Sorenson said.
“We’ll have a shot to comeback with a win.”
