After their impressive outside pole qualifying run at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) on Friday, Reed Sorenson and the No. 41 NicoDerm CQ team were definitely going to be strong contenders in the Food City 250. Unfortunately, they never really got to show what they were capable of as another competitor’s lack of patience literally concluded the team’s night on lap 24 of the 250-lap race and sent them home way too early in 42nd place.
“This is frustrating. It’s typical Bristol, but it’s still frustrating,” Sorenson commented after being released from the infield care center at BMS. “I wish there could have been a little more patience out there, especially so early into the race, but this has been our luck all year so I guess there is no reason for it to change now. I just feel bad for the guys on my NicoDerm CQ team. We’ve really had some great runs lately and this definitely set us back, but we still have nine more races left this season to settle inside the top 10 and that is what we plan to do.”
Sorenson and the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) team averaged a top-15 run during both of their practice sessions earlier in the day on Friday, and then went on to seal their pre-race preparations with the outside pole position later that evening, lapping the short Tennessee track at 124.4 miles per hour in 15.4 seconds.
The race got underway just a few hours later and Sorenson proceeded to hold his second-place position until the No. 39 car, driven by Ryan Newman, nudged the No. 04 car driven by Eric McClure. The bump sent the No. 04 car spinning on the track and right into Sorenson’s path. With no way to escape and no time to react, Sorenson smashed into McClure’s car. The hit damaged the NicoDerm CQ
Dodge beyond repair and thus forced the CGRFS driver and team to reluctantly call it a night in 42nd place.
The incident literally punched the team’s points position, relegating it from ninth to 13th in the NASCAR Busch Series owner standings. The team is 52 points outside of the top 10 with a running tally of 2,760. Sorenson took two steps back into 13th place and now stands 85 points out of 10th in the driver ranks with 2,675.
The Busch Series teams head back to California Speedway next weekend to run the Ameriquest 300 on Saturday night, September 2. The race is scheduled to start at 10 p.m. ET and will broadcast live on TNT (TV) and MRN (Radio).
