Race 2 Win: Ameriquest 300 - Reed Sorenson Notes

NASCAR Busch Series

Ameriquest 300 - Reed Sorenson Notes

Reed Sorenson, No. 41 America’s Tire Dodge
Ameriquest 300 – California Speedway – 09.02.06

No. 41 America’s Tire Team Fast Facts:

Another Name, but All the Same: The No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) Dodge will carry its primary sponsor’s California and Oregon branded name—America’s Tire—this weekend at California Speedway. Discount Tire/America’s Tire is America’s largest tire store and currently has more than 600 stores and four distribution centers in 19 states. The company provides retail sales of tires, wheels and related accessories and services through retail outlets and mail/internet orders. To learn more about America’s Tire and Discount Tire, go to www.discounttire.com.

At the Zone: Reed Sorenson will stop by Speed Zone Los Angeles at 17871 Castleton Street to meet area race fans and sign autographs. He will visit the Speed Zone facility from 6 to 8 p.m. PT Thursday, August 31. Upon his arrival, he will race 10 pre-determined fans on the slick track. Following the race, Sorenson will host an autograph session and special fan meet and greet. Limited autograph vouchers will be distributed at 4 p.m. PT. For more information on Sorenson’s Speed Zone visit, including driving directions to the park, visit www.speedzone.com.

California Native: Rear-tire changer Daryl Lockyer is a native of the Los Angeles, Calif. area. He has been a tire changer for 12 years and he has been a member of the CGRFS team for almost two years. He pits for a double-duty effort every weekend, going over the wall for the No. 41 Busch team on Saturdays and the No. 40 team on Sundays. Growing up 30 minutes from the California Speedway, he says his favorite food is In & Out Burger and before joining the NASCAR ranks he built cars for fellow California native Ron Hornaday Jr. He also recalls Kevin Harvick from his local racing days.

Mears on Double Duty: After making its NASCAR Busch Series debut this past February at California Speedway, the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge will return to the west coast track to help Casey Mears pull double duty again. In fact, Mears will be going for win number two after scoring his career-first NASCAR victory in the Busch Series race at Chicagoland Speedway this past July. Mears has been running a limited schedule in Busch Series competition this season, with his most recent run concluding with a second-place finish at Michigan International Speedway. Since its California debut, the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) Busch car has also competed at Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix, Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS), Chicago and Michigan. In seven starts, Mears and team have scored one win, four top-five and five top-10 finishes. The No. 42 Busch car will wrap up its 2006 program at LMS in October.

75th Win: Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz’ Rolex Sports Car series-leading fifth win at Infineon Raceway on Saturday, August 26, marked Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Inc.’s 75th win in motorsports (1990-2006)– a landmark achievement for team owner Chip Ganassi who started his first effort with Target stores in 1990 with the creation of a one-car IndyCar team. Wins by the numbers: 40 – CART; 13 – Grand American; 9 – IRL; 5 – NEXTEL Cup; 4 – Busch; 4 – ARCA.

Where are they now?: Sorenson and the No. 41 team never really got to capitalize on their outside pole position Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway when they were taken out of the race just 24 laps into the 250-lap competition. The hit sent them home in 42nd place and relegated them a total of six positions in the NASCAR Busch Series owner and driver standings. The team fell four places to 13th and is 52 points outside the top 10 in the owners standings. Sorenson took two steps back to 13th place, as well, and now stands 85 points out of 10th place in the driver ranks.

NEXTEL News: Reed Sorenson and the Target team turned in one of their best qualifying efforts of the season (10th) at Bristol Motor Speedway last week. Sorenson and crew proceeded to compete in the top 20 for a majority of the first half of the race, but on lap 226, the No. 41 Target Dodge cut a left-rear tire and Sorenson was caught up in an accident as a result. After major front end repair, he returned to competition and eventually brought the car home in 36th. Sorenson and the Target team dropped one position to 22nd in the overall standings. They are now just 79 points out of 20th and 202 out of 15th heading into the next event at California Speedway on Sept. 3. Sorenson is still third in the NEXTEL Cup Raybestos rookie standings. He is 62 points out of first.

Chassis: Crew chief Brian Pattie and the No. 41 America’s Tire team selected chassis #556 to run at California Speedway this weekend in the Ameriquest 300. In June, it helped Sorenson and the CGRFS team average a 10th-place running position the entire 200-lap race at Dover International Speedway before finishing it just the same—in 10th place (started 16th). The same car was entered in a total of five events in 2005, including both NASCAR Busch Series races at Dover, helping the team score a total of four top-five finishes. In June, the team scored a second-place finish (started sixth) at Dover and a fourth-place finish (started third) at The Monster Mile that following September. It also helped the CGRFS Busch team cruise to a fourth-place finish in the June race at Kentucky (started eighth) and November race at Texas (started ninth).

Sorenson comments on heading back to California Speedway:
“California is a pretty fun track to race on. It’s going to be different running there this time because the track will cool off a lot after the sun goes down. California usually always loses grip. When we were there in February, the track got slower as the practices went on. It doesn’t get terribly slick but it does lose time just like all the mile-and-a-half, 2-mile tracks do after about 20 laps under the sun. We had some really good long runs there earlier this season in the Busch car and the car handled them well, which helped us run inside the top 10 most of the day and eventually finish 11th. I just wish we could’ve held on for a top 10, but 11th is still respectable. Hopefully, we can get back on that roll we were on there in July and start posting some more top-five finishes.

“We had a really tough break in Bristol. The car was solid, grabbed the outside pole and was ready to run, but others got a little hasty and we suffered as a result of it. I know we all want to rebound big from that so we can get inside the top 10 and move up as far as possible from there.”