Youngest Pole Winner in Indy History: After capturing the pole for last weekend’s 14th running of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), Sorenson became the youngest driver to win a pole for a major event at the 2.5-mile speedway at the age of 21 years old. He broke a record that stood for 72 years, held by Rex Mays who won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 in 1935 at 22 years of age (IMS PR).
Record-Breaking Ride: The Target team will be using the same chassis (#402) that Sorenson drove to capture his first-career NEXTEL Cup Series pole at IMS for this weekend’s 500-mile race at Pocono Raceway. It is the same car Casey Mears used to break, and still holds, the track record with at IMS on Aug. 7, 2004. He turned a lap of 48.311 secs/186.293 mph. Mears also scored the pole at Pocono Raceway with the same chassis the week prior. Sorenson finished fifth with the car last weekend and scored two top 10s with it in 2006 (Chicagoland – seventh, Michigan – eighth).
Momentum Swing: Sorenson is currently riding a two week momentum swing that has seen him win his first Busch race since 2005 at Gateway International Raceway on July 21, capture his first-career NEXTEL Cup Series pole
position for the Brickyard 400 and finish out the weekend with a fifth-place finish at IMS.
Getting It Done on Pit Road: The No. 41 Target Dodge over-the-wall crew won the Checkers®/Rally’s® Double Drive-Thru Challenge at the Brickyard, spending the least amount of time on pit road (219.402 secs.). This marked the Target crew’s first Drive-Thru award of the season and it is the 11th team to pick up the prize so far in 2007.
Pennsylvanian: Target team transporter driver Rod Bussard hails from Everett, Pa., which is about three hours east of Pocono Raceway. This is Bussard’s fourth season with CGRFS and he’s been working in NASCAR for a total of 13 years. In addition to transporting the race cars, Bussard serves as pit support on race day.
Points Update: The Target team moved up four positions to 24th in the overall standings after its fifth-place finish in the last event at IMS. They are currently 162 points outside of the top 20.
Be Sure to Tune In: The Pennsylvania 500 is set to go green at 2 p.m. ET. The race will air live on ESPN, MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio channel 128.
