Good History: So far in his young racing career, Reed Sorenson has a pretty good history at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS). He competed in the May 2004 ARCA race at the speedway, starting from the third position, ran over debris late in the race and still managed to finish fourth. Later that same year in October, Sorenson started from the outside pole in the ASA (American Speed Association) race and then proceeded to score his career-first ASA win at the Concord, N.C. track. In May 2005, his first Busch Series run at LMS resulted in a top-10 start and top-five finish, which earned Sorenson the NASCAR Busch Series Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors.
Meet Sorenson in Charlotte: Sorenson will stop by the Discount Tire store located at 8521 Concord Mills Blvd. in Concord, N.C. this Wednesday, October 11 to meet area fans and sign autographs from 4:30 to 6 p.m. ET. For more information, call (704) 979-0950.
More Autograph Opportunities: Both CGRFS NEXTEL Cup rookie drivers Reed Sorenson and David Stremme will take a timeout this Thursday, October 12, to meet fans and sign autographs at the team’s race shop in Concord, N.C. The two rookies will be signing from 10 to 11:30 a.m. ET. Wristbands will guarantee an autograph and can be picked up in person at the team’s gift shop or by calling 1.866.888.6388 to reserve one. To learn more and keep up to pace on this event and further team updates, go to www.chipganassiracing.com. *Drivers will sign additional autographs if time allows. Please note two items per person maximum.
Moving on Up: After having a top-10 day all around at Kansas Speedway last month, Sorenson took another step up in the NASCAR Busch Series driver standings moving up from 10th to ninth. He and the No. 41 CGRFS Busch team now both stand ninth (in the driver and owner ranks) with just five races remaining in the 2006 season.
On the Cup Side: Sorenson’s misfortune at Talladega Superspeedway this past Sunday resulted in a 39th-place finish and a step back in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup points standings. He and the No. 41 Target team are now 24th overall and are 91 points out of 20th heading into this Saturday (Oct. 14) night’s NEXTEL Cup race at LMS.
Chassis: Crew chief Brian Pattie and the No. 41 Discount Tire team are bringing chassis #555 to run in the Dollar General 300 this Friday night at LMS. It is the same car Sorenson drove to a fifth-place finish in the Charlotte May race last year. Its most recent run was at Michigan International Speedway this past August, when Sorenson and team didn’t let a top-35 starting position hold them back as they capitalized on a combination of fancy wheel work on the track and foot work on pit road to score their ninth top 10 of the 2006 season (finished seventh, started 34th). It is also the same chassis that helped Sorenson and team grab another top-10 finish at Chicagoland in July (finished eighth, started fourth), and the outside pole on their way to a top-15 finish at Texas in April. Over the last two seasons, the team has run the chassis a total of nine times. Its running tally totals two top-five and six top-10 finishes, with its best finish resulting at Texas in April 2005 when the team started 15th and then wrapped up the day in third place.
Reed comments about returning to Lowe’s Motor Speedway to go Busch racing Friday night:
“I like racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but my last Busch run there definitely was not one of my favorites. It’s never good to start the race weekend off by wrecking your car during qualifying and that is what I did. So, we had to pull the back-up car out after that. It was actually a good car. We had just run it at California and got an 11th-place finish, but not getting to practice with the car before the race definitely didn’t help us. We seemed to be chasing the handling of the car all night. I started out tight and was barely able to turn and then it got loose. The guys on the Discount Tire team worked hard to make the necessary adjustments but we couldn’t quite get it dialed in.
“All in all, after starting in the back of the field, we were able to gain some ground. It wasn’t easy to pass though because it was pretty much a single-groove race track anyway. You just have to have a really good car everywhere you go, and at Lowe’s it needs to be exceptionally better. Once the track ages a little bit, the passing will get better and so will the all around racing.”
