Every step the Discount Tire team took this past weekend at Kentucky Speedway seemed to be getting the team and Reed Sorenson closer and closer to a successful conclusion. However, less than 100 laps into their run Saturday night, the weekend quite literally turned on them as the No. 41 Dodge spun around and slammed into the outside wall on lap 60. The hit ended the team’s promising weekend run, and handed it a 39th-place finish instead.
“To be honest, I am not sure what happened here tonight,” Sorenson commented. “Kevin [Hamlin] and the guys on this Discount Tire team had a solid car ready to go for me last night during final practice and during qualifying here today. We started with the same car, but had transmission issues on pit road early on in the race and that seemed to change everything around on us the rest of the way. I’m still not sure what happened, but this night should’ve ended a lot differently.”
It was the second weekend in a row Sorenson had to split his time between states so he could compete in both the NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series’ races. His week started off in Brooklyn, Mich., practicing and qualifying the No. 41 Target Dodge at Michigan International Speedway on Friday, and then he flew to Kentucky to run the No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge in the final Busch Series practice of the weekend late that evening. Sorenson then hopped back on a plane Friday night to return to Michigan to make his final practice runs in the No. 41 Target
Dodge on Saturday morning. After that, he once again returned to Kentucky to qualify and race the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) Dodge in the Meijer 300 Saturday night.
Friday and Saturday, the No. 41 Discount Tire team practiced and qualified well as it prepared for the 16th race of the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series season at the Sparta, Ky. area track. Sorenson and team had a more than impressive qualifying run, as they initially sat on the pole after their two laps around the 1.5-mile speedway, and then eventually settled into the third-starting position by the conclusion of the evening qualifying session.
The Meijer 300 got underway just after 8 p.m. ET and was plagued by yellow flags in the beginning laps. The Discount Tire team played the delays well as it stayed on track during both caution periods and proceeded to hold on to a second-place run. Sorenson commented the car was pretty strong, but a little loose through the center.
Reed climbs into the #41. (Getty Images Photos)
The third yellow flag of the race waved on lap 23 with the No. 41 car in third place. Crew chief Brian Pattie called Sorenson to pit road for fuel and a track bar adjustment to try to tighten up the car. Unfortunately, while on pit road, the team encountered transmission issues and as racing resumed on lap 28 Sorenson restarted in 37th place.
Shortly thereafter, Sorenson reported there was a bad rattling noise in his car. The team pitted again to look the car over to see what was causing the noise, but couldn’t find anything wrong. Sorenson added the car was still handling pretty well, but the rattling noise was not subsiding.
Then, a devastating and final blow struck the team on lap 60, when the No. 41 car went spinning around between Turns 1 and 2. It then slid up the track and slammed against the outside wall. It was an unrecoverable hit that forced the team to call it a night in 39th place. With a total of 1,621 points, Sorenson and team are now 12th in the NASCAR Busch Series driver standings and 16th in owner points.
The Discount Tire team heads to The Milwaukee Mile next Saturday, June 24, to compete in the AT&T 250. The team will, however,
Reed Sorenson
have a different pilot behind the wheel of the No. 41 Dodge. While Sorenson is racing the No. 41 Target Dodge at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., his CGRFS teammate David Stremme will be racing the No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis. It was officially decided last week Stremme would fill in for Sorenson, who has been racing full time in both the NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series’. Sorenson will resume his driving duties of the No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) on June 30. Stremme will also resume his driving duties of the No. 40 NEXTEL Cup Dodge on July 1 at DIS. Scott Pruett, the team’s road-racing veteran and current points leader of the Rolex Sports Car Series, will race the No. 40 Coors Light Dodge at Infineon.
The broadcast of the AT&T 250 will begin at 8:30 p.m. ET on FX (TV) and MRN (Radio).
