The first sign of trouble for the No. 41 Discount Tire team was apparent as soon as the green flag waved on Saturday afternoon. Sorenson started second, but was ninth by lap five. He called over the radio to tell his team the car was way too tight. Still, he and his teammate Casey Mears held on to a top-10 run the entire first quarter of the 200-lap competition.
Approaching lap 60, Sorenson told his team he was doing all he could to keep his No. 41 Dodge on the race track so crew chief Brian Pattie called him to pit road under green to make wedge and air pressure adjustments. The over-the-wall Discount Tire team topped the stop off with four tires and fuel, and as the rest of the field completed the green-flag pit stop cycle the No. 41 Dodge settled back into 11th place.
About 10 laps later, the 20-year old driver told his team the car was showing improvement. “The car does feel better, but maybe do some more of what you just did. It is still a little too snug.”
The first yellow flag of the race was displayed on lap 84. The Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Busch team took advantage of the pause in the race to try to loosen up the car’s tight handling some more. The team pulled a spring rubber out of the left rear and then took four tires and fuel. As racing resumed on lap 88, Sorenson was 16th.
Just as the race was approaching the halfway point, Sorenson was making major gains on the track and moved up to 12th place by lap 102. “You just smoked them right there for position. Keep it up,” said Lorin Ranier, Sorenson’s spotter.
Then, just as soon as it looked like the team had put the worst part of its day behind it, the car developed a severe vibration. “The whole car is shaking,” Sorenson said.
Pattie told his driver to do the best he could and if the car got to where he couldn’t drive it, to bring it to pit road. “As soon as we get a window, I will pull you in here,” Pattie said.
The second yellow flag of the race waved on lap 136 for a spin on the track. Sorenson retreated to pit road and the No. 41 team went to work, pitting a total of three times during the yellow-flag conditions to make major chassis adjustments. NASCAR black flagged the team for allegedly dropping debris on the race track, which forced Sorenson to restart at the end of the longest line. Racing resumed on lap 140, with the No. 41 in 18th place.
Now, it was a race to make up for lost time. Sorenson began working to gain as much track position as possible. With just 40 laps remaining, the Discount Tire driver worked to get through the lapped traffic ahead of him.
By lap 179, he was 15th and then moved up to 13th just as the 200th lap displayed on the infield score tower. A late-race caution delayed the race’s conclusion, but didn’t keep Sorenson from hanging on to a 13th-place finale as the green-white checkered flag waved. Sorenson’s teammate, Mears finished third.
The No. 41 Discount Tire team and driver now stand 17th in the driver rankings and 19th in owner points. Sorenson and team head to Nashville Superspeedway next weekend to defend their 2005 Pepsi 300 win. The race is scheduled to start at 4:05 p.m. ET Saturday, April 15, and will broadcast live on FX (TV) and MRN (Radio).
After grabbing the outside pole earlier in the week for the start of the O’Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, Reed Sorenson and the No. 41 Discount Tire team were flying high and ready to go racing on Saturday. However, shortly after the green flag waved, a stubborn-handling race car put a crimp in their stride, but the driver and team fought the mishandling conditions to eventually call it a day with a well-earned 13th-place finish.
“I knew we were in for a pretty long day there from the beginning, when the car just didn’t seem to want to cut,” Sorenson said after the race on Saturday. “A top 15 isn’t a horrible way to end the day, but after starting on such a high note earlier in the week it isn’t what we expected either. We usually have this place pegged, but not sure why the car turned on us like it did here today.”
