Mears, carrying the number and logo of his NEXTEL Cup car—the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge, is running a limited schedule in the Busch Series this year. The No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) Busch car made its debut at California Speedway in late February, and has since also run at Atlanta, Texas and Phoenix.
Sorenson and Mears will team up for the fifth time this year in Busch Series competition for the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at LMS Saturday, May 27. Mears will also go Busch racing at LMS again in the fall, along with Chicago in July, Michigan in August and California in September.
Sorenson finished his two-day test yesterday, and will have some time to relax today before heading to Darlington for this weekend’s NASCAR Busch and NEXTEL Cup races. Mears, who
just started testing yesterday, will run again at LMS today and then head to Darlington tomorrow, as well.
To-date, the CGRFS Busch Series program has 58 starts to its credit and has amassed three wins, four poles, 17 top-five and 30 top-10 finishes.
As the second day of NASCAR Busch Series testing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS) wrapped up Tuesday night, Casey Mears locked in the fastest time of the day, running at 187.071 miles per hour, and Reed Sorenson was right behind him with the No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge running the second-fastest lap of the day at 186.554 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile speedway.
This week’s race preparation session is the last NASCAR scheduled test for the Busch Series teams in ’06. Both Mears and Sorenson tested at LMS last week, as well, during the NEXTEL Cup session at the Charlotte area speedway with the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline team and No. 41 Target team.
