EARLY EXIT FROM BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOR REED SORENSON AND DOLLAR GENERAL TEAM

Reed Sorenson and the No. 32 Dollar General team fought hard all day on Saturday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway and had battled their way into the top-10 when Sorenson radioed to the crew that he was experiencing an electrical issue.  Crew chief Trent Owens called his driver down pit road to allow the crew to look over the Dollar General Chevy.  After a quick examination, it was determined the issue was terminal and the team’s day was over, much too early. 

After a full day of practice on Friday, Sorenson qualified the No. 32 car in the 17th spot for the Scott’s EZ Seed 300.  From the drop of the green flag, Sorenson radioed to explain his car was loose getting off of the corners.  NASCAR called a competition yellow at lap 25 to allow teams to change right side tires after a problem teams were experiencing during practice sessions on Friday.  This allowed the Dollar General team to make much needed changes to the car as well.  Sorenson took the restart in the 11th position.

While the car began to handle better immediately following a pit stop, the loose condition returned as the run progressed.  The field saw the start of a long green-flag run just past the one-third mark of the 300-lap event and competitors began green-flag pit stops at lap 167.  Unfortunately Sorenson went a lap down just prior to that while running in the 16th spot, but went down swinging, fighting leader Kyle Busch for a dozen laps. 

The caution flag was waved on lap 201 for a spin by the No. 88 car with Sorenson just narrowly missing significant contact with teammate Jason Leffler.  Because he was in position for the Lucky Dog award should the caution flag come out again, Owens told his driver to remain on track.  While running in the 10th spot, the team caught the break they were hoping for and the caution came out on lap 209.  Unfortunately, just shortly thereafter, Sorenson radioed back with the bad news which ended the team’s day.

“This was obviously not the day we were hoping for today,” said Sorenson.  “We struggled a bit in practice on Friday, but after qualifying this morning we felt a lot better about where we were headed in the race.  This was just an unfortunate event with the parts failure.  It happens to all of us at one point or another.  It is still very early in the season and we’ll just have to regroup and get ready for California next week.  I have all the faith in the world in this Dollar General team and all these guys.”   

Next Stop: The NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to the west coast and Auto Club Speedway next weekend for the Royal Purple 300.  The Saturday afternoon race will be broadcast LIVE on ESPN and on MRN Radio affiliates.  Coverage begins at 5:00 p.m. EST.

Reed Sorenson - Bristol Motor Speedway

Race Report

#32 Dollar General Chevrolet