Sorenson and Target Team Eliminated in Opening Laps at Kansas
Reed Sorenson and the No. 41 Target team entered the Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway with high hopes of duplicating their performance from a week ago at Dover. The team had a contending car at Dover, and had the Target Dodge not run out of fuel with one lap remaining Sorenson for sure would’ve finished in the top five. Prior to the start of the Kansas event, the Target team felt they had a car equally as good if not better. Unfortunately no one will ever know because Sorenson was eliminated from the race on lap 18 after making heavy contact with the outside retaining wall in Turns 3 and 4.
“I’m not really sure what happened,” said Sorenson as he surveyed the damage to the No. 41 Target Dodge in the garage area. “I got loose going into (Turn) one on the last restart and got into the wall a little bit. I went into (Turn) three about half throttle and the car just broke loose on me. It was out of control. I don’t know if we cut a tire or if we had something going wrong or what the deal was.
“This is really tough because we had a fast car all weekend. It was a top-five car for sure and now we’re loading it up early. I hate it for the guys because they worked hard all weekend and we don’t have anything to show for it. We’ll get this car fixed and take it to another track down the road.”
Sorenson rocketed from his 26th-place starting position to 19th before the first caution period on lap nine. After pitting for two tires he returned to the track in 13th and poised to break inside of the top 10. Shortly after the next restart on lap 13, Sorenson made a quick decision to dive down off of the racing surface and on to pit road to avoid a spinning car just in front of him exiting Turn 4. The transition from the track to the apron caused minor damage to the front valance of the Target Dodge. Sorenson pitted a couple of times for quick repairs and returned to competition in 42nd.
Green-flag conditions resumed on lap 18 and before the completion of the next lap Sorenson and the Target team were done for the day. Sorenson’s 43rd-place finish dropped the Target team two positions to 23rd in the overall standings heading into the next event at Talladega Superspeedway on Oct. 8. Sorenson’s Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates teammates Casey Mears and David Stremme finish second and 26th respectively.
