After a busy week of testing Reed Sorenson and the No. 41 Discount Tire team headed west for their second go-around on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway. In the spring the crew led for a large portion of the day and finished third.
The O’Reilly Challenge in Texas brought not just hope for a solid run but rejuvenation to the team with the return of crew chief Brian Pattie, who had been vacant from the pit box since the Bristol event seven races ago.
“Week to week, we don’t change the way we approach things. We prepare the cars the same way at the shop and bring them to the track and prep them the same way here. It’s team morale, driver, confidence,” Pattie said of the team’s success no matter what the situation.
With Pattie back in control, the schedule in Texas was broken down into two days with practice and qualifying on Friday followed by 200 laps of racing Saturday afternoon.
“We were a little loose at the beginning of practice. We were pretty good in qualifying trim and then we were a little tight there at the end. We’ve got to get in somewhere in between there and we should be good,” Reed said.
Qualifying was successful with a stellar ninth place starting spot.
Once the checkered flag fell on Saturday Sorenson didn’t stay in the ninth position for long. With less than 10 laps on the board he had all ready moved his No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge into the fourth position.
The first caution flag of the day fell on lap 18 opening the door for the first round of pitstops. After the pit crew did their job on the No. 41, Reed had dropped to 15th for the restart on lap 21. The team had a good stop but Sorenson’s pitroad exit however was held up by the No. 12 who was car pitting in front of him.
Once the field shot out for the restart Sorenson’s Dodge was slow.
“Transmission, stuck,” he said over the radio.
“All I got is fourth gear.”
With the locked transmission positions continued to click by as Sorenson struggled to get his Dodge up to speed.
Fortunately, there was a quick caution just four laps later allowing Sorenson to drop his Dodge to pitroad for repairs.
The 41 crew got to work, fixed the tranny, added some fuel and focused on keeping their driver motivated knowing he had a lot of work to do.
40 laps later and Sorenson had clearly regrouped. Passing car after car he found himself back in the top 20 and climbing.
Green flag pitstops were quickly approaching and Sorenson had been on a slightly different sequence after his earlier stops. On lap 89, the Discount Tire ride was scored as the leader.
Once stops completely cycled through Sorenson charged on and began knocking on the door of the top 10 once again.
“Don’t give up. We have a long way to go here,” Pattie coached.
“I’ve given all I’ve got. It’s not easy going from 39th to where we are now,” Sorenson said as he drove in the 13th spot with just over 80 laps remaining.
10 laps later the DTC machine darted passed the No. 8 of reigning champion Martin Truex, Jr. for the 11th spot. Momentum high, he soared by the Elliott Sadler and Paul Menard machines climbing into ninth.
On lap136, after moving into the eighth spot, the No. 41 Dodge clocked in the fastest time on track.
The caution flag fell on lap 167, giving Sorenson his final pitstop. He led his Dodge down pitroad at the required slowed 45 mph speed limit but the work of the pit crew made up the time. Entering the pits in 7th, the crew pit down a solid stop and pushed Sorenson into fourth on the exit.
Just over 30 laps remained of the 200 but lapped traffic on the restart slowed Sorenson a bit and once he was able to overtake them, the top three had pulled away.
A final caution flag fell on the final lap but the leaders had taken the white flag, ending the event under the yellow.
Finishing fourth was a victory after the consequential day Sorenson and the Discount Tire team faced.
“The cautions fell good. When we had to go to the back there, that’s what killed us. We went back to 39th or whatever - it was when we had the transmission stuck in fourth gear. We had to come down pit road and we were already in the top-10. Losing 30 spots isn’t good,” Sorenson said.
“Passing isn’t easy. You’ve got to be careful when you get on the gas that it didn’t pick up a little push. I felt like I passed about 30 or 40 cars out there. A top-five finish after doing that is pretty good.”
With the fourth place showing, Reed tallied his 13th top five run of the season.
Next weekend support for the team will be high with many of the sponsor, Arizona-based Discount Tire Co., employees on hand at the Phoenix International Raceway.
In the spring the team had a fast racecar capable of running top five, even competing for the win, but a restart bunched up the field and a wreck broke out across the frontstretch, ending the run.
Following Phoenix the DTC crew will close out the year in Homestead.
Reed had a good run at Texas Motor Speedway. (Getty Images)
