During the opening laps of the USG Sheetrock 400 Sorenson commented the car was loose entering the corners and tight in the center. He was able to race up to the 15th position during the first run of the race until a round of green-flag stops began around lap 45. Sorenson pitted on lap 51 for four tires, fuel and air pressure adjustments and cycled out in 16th. The first caution of the day came out on lap 58 and since the team had just pitted, crew chief Jimmy Elledge opted to leave Sorenson out on the race track. Many of the other competitors pitted so Sorenson took the next green flag on lap 63 in second place.
Sorenson was able to maintain second until lap 79, then the car began to get loose entering the corners. He went on to hold his position in the top five until lap 93 and then
remained in the top 10 until pitting under green on lap 107. Once the field completed its green flag stops, Sorenson and the Target Dodge were ninth in the running order. Sorenson radioed in that he was still too loose entering and tight in the center.
The second caution flag flew on lap 154 with the Target Dodge in 12th. Elledge took the opportunity to adjust on the chassis in addition to making some air pressure adjustments. The changes helped and Sorenson was able to race up to eighth place before the fifth caution of the day on lap 223. Fearing that he may have run over some debris, Sorenson brought the car on to pit road for four tires and fuel. Unfortunately some of the other teams remained on the track, forcing the Target team to sacrifice valuable positions. Sorenson took the next green in 12th and lapped traffic prevented him from regaining the lost positions before taking the checkered flag.
Sorenson and the Target team moved up one position to
28th in the overall standings at the completion of the
Chicagoland event. The team is just 54 points out of 25th
and 217 out of 20th.
The Target team made five pit stops during the event,
two under green and the rest under caution. There were
seven caution flags for a total of 32 laps and the time of
race was 2 hrs, 58 mins and 59 secs.
The NEXTEL Cup Series has this weekend off, and then it
heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway next for the Brickyard
400 on July 29. The race is set to begin at 1 p.m. ET and
will air on ESPN.
Reed's Quoteboard
“It was a good day for the Target team. We had a solid top 15 car all weekend and this is definitely the kind of finish we need after the last few races. I thought we would be able to move up in the closing laps by taking four at the end, but we kept getting caught behind lapped cars on the restarts. Still, it was a good day and I'm looking forward to Indy in a couple of weeks.”
