Sorenson Knows Lowe’s: Sorenson is building an impressive resume at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He has competed at the 1.5-mile speedway in a number of different series’ including; NEXTEL Cup, Busch, ARCA and ASA. Sorenson’s first start at the track came in the May 2004 ARCA race where he started third and finished fourth. Later that same year he scored his first-career ASA victory in October. Sorenson has three starts in Busch Series competition with a career high fifth-place finish (May 2005) and his only points awarded start in NEXTEL Cup competition in May of this season resulted in a 10th-place finish.
Lysol on the Quarter Panel: The Lysol logo will adorn the upper-rear quarter panels of the red and white Target Dodge this weekend. Lysol Brand surface and air sanitizer products are manufactured and distributed by Reckitt Benckiser, No. 1 in household cleaning. For more information on Lysol and the family of Reckitt Benckiser products, please visit www.reckitt.com.
Chassis: Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge and the No. 41 Target Team have selected chassis #206 for this weekend’s NEXTEL Cup event at LMS. This car has been the busiest of the Target team’s fleet this season, competing in a total of six events (California, Las Vegas, NEXTEL Open, Pocono 1, Indy, Dover 2). Its best performance of ’06 came in the second Dover race where Sorenson led a total of 39 laps and ran in the top five for a majority of the race. He went on to finish 11th after running out of fuel with just one lap remaining.
NEXTEL Cup Points Report: Sorenson and the No. 41 team dropped one position to 24th in the overall standings after engine woes sent the team to the garage early in the last event at Talladega. With a total of 2942 points, the team is only 91 points out of 20th.
Rookie Round Up: Sorenson is currently third in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings with 192 points. He trails leader Denny Hamlin by 73 points and second place Clint Bowyer by 28. Sorenson has captured rookie of the race honors in five of the 30 races run thus far in ’06 (Atlanta – 10th, Martinsville – 12th, Michigan – fifth, Chicagoland – seventh, Michigan 2 - eighth).
Autograph Seekers Alert: Reed Sorenson and David Stremme will be signing autographs next Thurs., Oct. 12 from 10-11:30 am at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates’ Concord, N.C. location. Wristbands are required and can be picked up at the gift shop or can be reserved by calling 866.888.6388.
*Casey Mears and IRL driver Dan Wheldon will be on hand Fri., Oct. 13 from 11:30-1 pm to sign autographs. Wristbands are required and can be picked up at the gift shop or can be reserved by calling 866.888.6388.
Busch Series Update: Sorenson and the Discount Tire team took last weekend off, but Sorenson moved up one position to ninth in the overall Busch Series driver standings with his seventh-place run at Kansas on Sept 30. Sorenson is 242 points out of eighth with five races remaining.
Reed Sorenson on Lowe’s…
“The last two weeks have pretty much been disastrous for us. It’s not for lack of trying because the Target team has been preparing excellent race cars each week. It’s more just bad luck. We’ve dropped three positions in the points and that’s definitely not the direction we want to be headed in as the season comes to an end. Our goal is to finish inside of the top 20 in points, and that is a strong possibility, but we have to turn things around now for that to happen. There is no doubt in my mind this team is capable of doing so, we just have to have things go our way.
“Our goal this weekend, like every weekend, is to win. We’re taking a car that we know will run up front, and the mile-and- a-half tracks have been our strong suit this season. We had a solid run at Lowe’s in the Spring and we’re hoping to improve upon that on Saturday night. I truly think we can win a race before this season is over. Maybe it will be this weekend.”
