Reed Sorenson started the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the 26th position. Battling a “loose” race car with “no grip” whatsoever, Sorenson slipped back to 39th position in the opening laps. After a pit stop on lap 21 for some chassis adjustments, the No. 41 Fuji/Target Dodge appeared to come to life as Sorenson charged up to 24th by lap 64. Unfortunately his run came to an abrupt end when the right front tire blew on lap 67, sending the Fuji/Target Dodge slamming into the outside retaining wall.
The team spent much of the remainder of the 337-lap event working to realign the front end of the race car. Driving a car that was extremely hard to pilot at times, Sorenson kept it pointed in the right direction and managed to complete the event, only loosing four laps to the leader in the process. He eventually crossed the finish line in 30th place.
The Target team maintained 23rd position in the overall NEXTEL Cup Series driver standings. The team now stands 166 points outside of the top 20 with five events remaining.
There were 15 caution flags for a total of 62 laps, the average speed was 125.868 mph and the time of race was 4 hrs, 00 mins and 58 secs.
The NEXTEL Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway next for the 32nd of 36 races on the 2007 schedule. The Subway 500 is set to go green at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 21 and will air on ABC, MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio channel 128.
CGRFS Driver Quoteboard
REED SORENSON: “It’s a shame we cut the tire, because we had a really good car tonight. It was a little too loose early on, but after about 10 laps it was really fast. It would’ve been awesome on the long, green-flag runs, but there weren’t too many of those tonight. Unfortunately we weren’t able to keep our top-10 streak alive, but I feel like we would’ve been competitive. The Target team is hitting its stride right now and I’m looking forward to the next five races. I really believe we’re going to make a strong run at getting into the top 20 in points before the season is over.”
