The Dollar General team unloaded a fast race car on Friday morning and, after a solid morning of practice, were ready for Friday night racing under the lights at Darlington Raceway. While Mother Nature had other plans with rain cancelling qualifying, Reed Sorenson started the Royal Purple 200 in the fifth position after posting the fifth fastest time in final practice earlier in the day. From the drop of the green flag, Sorenson never fell outside of the top-10 throughout the 147-lap event. He narrowly missed a multi-car accident, having to dive to the inside apron on lap 95 before bringing his No. 32 Dollar General Chevy home in the eighth position, minus the classic “Darlington Stripe”. With the eighth-place finish, Sorenson remains fourth in the championship point standings, 18 points behind teammate Justin Allgaier.
Sorenson shot up one spot to fourth just after the start of the race, before taking the first caution flag of the evening. NASCAR mandated a competition caution on lap 25 due to the rain earlier in the day which washed all of the rubber off the track. Sorenson explained that he was dealing with a slightly snug race car and crew chief Trent Owens called for a track-bar adjustment along with four tires and fuel. Sorenson rejoined the field in the sixth spot, as two competitors chose to take two tires.
By the third caution on lap 74, Sorenson was in the seventh position and still looking for some front grip. He steered the Dollar General machine down pit road and Owens had the team undo the previous adjustment while making air pressure and wedge adjustments to try and get the car to turn better for their driver. Sorenson rejoined the field in the seventh spot.
The final caution was shown on lap 95 for a multi-car accident which Sorenson was able to narrowly avoid with the help of spotter, Tony Hirschman. While heading into turns one and two, three competitors took the turn three-wide directly in front of the No. 32, forcing Sorenson to dive to the inside of the backstretch to miss the mayhem. He took the ensuing restart from the seventh position, but fell one place to eighth in the closing laps, where he took the checkered flag.
“We unloaded a really fast Dollar General Chevy here this morning which continued into the race this evening,” Sorenson said after the race. “We just got a little tight there at the end and needed to turn just a bit better and I think we would have been up there contending with the leaders. Tonight was a great learning experience for this team and we will take the knowledge from tonight with us into next week. The team did an awesome job preparing the car and our pit stops were really solid tonight. It’s great to get some momentum built up here heading into Dover next week, which I think we were able to do with another top-10 finish.”
Next Stop: The NASCAR Nationwide Series heads to the Monster Mile of Dover International Speedway for a Saturday afternoon race on May 14. The 5-Hour Energy 200 will be broadcast live on ESPN and MRN Radio affiliates. LIVE coverage of the race begins at 2:00 p.m. on ESPN.
Sorenson Returns to Form With Top-10 at Darlington
#32 Dollar General Chevrolet
