SORENSON FINISHES 10TH AT TALLADEGA FOR SECOND-CONSECUTIVE TOP 10

After starting 28th, Reed Sorenson drafted his way inside of the top 10 during the first five circuits around the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. Two laps later he moved into the runner-up position, showing that he had a strong Target Dodge Avenger for the inaugural restrictor-plate Car of Tomorrow (CoT) race. Other than getting shuffled around in the draft at times, Sorenson and the Target team maintained position in the top 10 for a majority of the 188 laps that made up the UAW 500.

Sorenson was pleased with the handling of the car the entire race and at no point did crew chief Jimmy Elledge have to make any adjustments to the chassis. The over-the-wall crew had to pull some tape from the front grill to overcome a slight overheating problem, but other than that it was pretty much a picture perfect day. Sorenson kept his nose clean throughout the race and managed to avoid “the Big One,” which took out about eight cars. The race concluded with a nine-lap shootout to the checker and after getting pushed out of line, Sorenson worked his way back into the draft to bring home his second-straight top-10 finish.”

The Target team maintained 23rd position in the overall NEXTEL Cup Series driver standings. The team now stands 133 points outside of the top 20.

There were nine caution flags for a total of 34 laps, the average speed was 143.438 mph and the time of race was 3 hrs, 29 mins and 11 secs.

*Note: Following the event, post-race inspection revealed that there may be an issue with the height requirement on the front end of the No. 41.

The NEXTEL Cup Series heads to Lowe’s Motor Speedway next for the 31st of 36 races on the 2007 schedule. The Bank of America 500 is set to go green at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 13, and will air on ABC, PRN and Sirius Satellite Radio channel 128.

CGRFS Driver Quoteboard

REED SORENSON: “It was a good run for us. We ran in the top 10 for most of the race and we managed to finish there, which is a good thing in a race like this. I think we were a little better than where we finished, but we got shuffled out and had to work our way back up there.”