Reed Starts And Finishes 23rd In Darlington Busch Race

“We have been battling that loose-handling all day, and it bit us here tonight,” Sorenson said after the race. “I’m still not sure what was wrong with the car, but the Discount Tire team really tried to get it to come around but it just didn’t seem to want to respond to anything we were doing to it.”

The green flag waved just before 9 p.m. ET Friday night and it wasn’t too long after that, when Sorenson delivered the disappointing news about the ever-present loose handling that was making the car hard to manage.

“The car is still loose and really loose getting into Turn one,” Sorenson told his team. “Hopefully, we can get it to tighten up a bit. I feel like I’m killing the right rear.”

Although the handling was not to his liking, Sorenson was still able to turn his 23rd-place start into a top-15 position and was knocking on the door of the top 10 by lap 15.

The second yellow flag of the race waved shortly after that on lap 21 and delivered the break the team needed. Sorenson brought the No. 41 car to pit road and the team gave him four tires and fuel, in addition to an air pressure adjustment to try to shake the loose-handling condition. Racing resumed on lap 25 with the No. 41 CGRFS car in 10th place.

A third yellow flag waved almost 40 laps later. Sorenson was able to gain a spot and hold on to a top-10 run, but told his team the car wasn’t handling much better than before.

“The car is still loose, loose, loose. It feels like the right rear is digging in the ground and the left rear isn’t doing anything,” Sorenson told his team over the radio.

A loose-handling condition clung to the No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge throughout pre-race preparations Friday at Darlington Raceway and soon proved to be an even bigger nuisance that evening in the Diamond Hill Plywood 200. Reed Sorenson and team battled the wayward handling all night and eventually fell victim to the mishandling on lap 121 as the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) car fell out of line, whirled around on the track and brought out the sixth yellow flag of the 147-lap event. Sorenson and team managed to take the setback that relegated them from 16th to 29th and conclude the night exactly where they had started it—in 23rd place.

Crew chief Brian Pattie called his driver to pit road under caution on lap 63. The team went to work, giving Sorenson four tires and fuel, along with wedge adjustments to again try to tighten up the car’s handling. The over-the-wall Discount Tire crew members didn’t miss a beat during the stop. The No. 41 car came down pit road in ninth place and left it just the same.

The Discount Tire team and driver went on to hang on to their top-10 run for almost 20 laps. Then, the car started to slowly lose ground. Sorenson soon fell back to 13th and then told his team the car was still mishandling.

“I’m sideways all the way around this place,” he said.

The team made another stop under yellow on lap 116 to make more adjustments, including track bar and air pressure. They finished the stop off with four tires and fuel, and then sent Sorenson back on track in 16th place. The green flag waved again on lap 119 and as the No. 41 was coming around to complete the restart lap, it spun around in Turn two.

The spin brought out the sixth caution of the night. Luckily, there was only a little bit of right-front damage made to the 41 car, so the CGRFS team went to work to give Sorenson four more tires and to make minor repairs to the right front. The race restarted on lap 124 with Sorenson in 29th place.

Pattie made one last attempt to improve his team’s position by calling Sorenson to pit road after the ninth yellow flag of the race waved on lap 141. The team put four sticker tires on the No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge and then sent Sorenson back out in 27th place. The race resumed on lap 145. Sorenson managed to make the most of the fresh tires and gained four positions to finish where he had started the 200-mile race in 23rd place.

Sorenson and the No. 41 Discount Tire team now stand 14th in driver points and 17th in owner points. They are 55 points out of 10th in driver points and 243 points out of fifth. In the owners’ standings, they are 112 points out of 10th and 243 points out of fifth.

The NASCAR Busch Series teams will have a weekend off next week as the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup teams run in the All-Star Challenge next Saturday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS). Sorenson and the No. 41 Discount Tire team will return to action Saturday, May 27, to run in the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at LMS. The night race is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET and will broadcast live on FX (TV) and PRN (Radio).