Race 2 Win: Kroger 200 - Reed Sorenson Notes

NASCAR Busch Series

Kroger 200 - Reed Sorenson Notes

Reed Sorenson, No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge
Kroger 200 benefiting Riley Hospital for Children – O’Reilly Raceway Park – 08.05.06

No. 41 Discount Tire Team Fast Facts:

The Game Plan: Reed Sorenson will only have to shuffle once between Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and the O’Reilly Raceway Park (ORP) this weekend, as he competes in both the NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series races. He will start off the weekend practicing and qualifying the No. 41 Target Dodge at IMS Friday and Saturday. Then, after he finishes his final NEXTEL Cup practice late Saturday afternoon, he will chopper over to ORP to qualify and race the No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge in the Kroger 200.

Hamlin’s Help: On Saturday, while Sorenson is over at IMS practicing and qualifying the No. 41 Target Dodge, Kevin Hamlin—a Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) development driver—will help the No. 41 Discount Tire team during both morning practice sessions to get its car set up and ready for Sorenson to run in both the qualifying session and race later that day. Hamlin has helped the team during other non-companion events this year, including Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway and Kentucky Speedway (Sparta, Ky.). He also helped at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where he qualified the No. 41 Dodge in the ninth-place starting position for the Goody’s 250.

Indy was Sorenson’s First: Sorenson made his NASCAR Busch Series debut at O’Reilly Raceway Park in August 2004, driving for CGRFS. Sorenson’s first run was a solid one indeed, as he grabbed a third-place starting position and then topped it off with a respectable 13th-place finish.

ORP Suits Sorenson: Sorenson has had some impressive runs at ORP. He scored his career-second Busch Series pole at ORP last season, which made him the only other rookie to win a pole position at ORP (the first was Jason Leffler). Sorenson then topped it off by grabbing the Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors with a third-place finish. Before that, he also raced at the Indianapolis short track in the American Speed Association (ASA) series scoring a top-10 start and finish (started seventh, finished sixth) in July 2004, and then as mentioned above made his Busch Series debut that following August (started third, finished 13th). Altogether he has recorded three-career starts at ORP with his current tally equaling one pole, one top-five finish, two top-10 finishes and three top-15 finishes.

Meet Sorenson in Indy: Sorenson will stop by the Discount Tire store located at 2642 E. Main Street, Plainfield, Ind., to meet area race fans and sign autographs from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, August 3. After that, he will head for down town Indianapolis to Monument Circle to sign autographs during the Dodge Racers on the Circle event from 7 to 7:30 p.m. The Dodge event will kick off at 5:30 p.m. with Sorenson’s teammates David Stremme signing from 6 to 6:30 p.m. and Casey Mears from 6:30 to 7 p.m. For more information go to www.wibc.com/station/dodgeracers2006.aspx.

Not Too Far From Home: Tim Coffey, the No. 41 Discount Tire team transport driver, called Greenwood, Ind. home before pursuing a career in NASCAR five years ago. Coffey first started his racing career in Indy car, before a holiday vacation to North Carolina landed him his first job in NASCAR. Coffey not only transports more than one million dollars worth of equipment every weekend, but he also serves as the team chef. He is a graduate of Southport High School, and the majority of his family still resides in the Indianapolis area.

Where They Are Now: Sorenson still stands 13th in the Busch Series driver standings with a total of 2,238 points. He is now just 164 points out of 10th. The team stands 11th in the owner standings with a running tally of 2,323. It is 79 points outside the top 10.

On the Cup Side: The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series had this past weekend off, which marked the series’ last off-weekend before embarking on a 16-consecutive-week stretch that will conclude with the final race of the 2006 season at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., on November 19. Heading into this weekend’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sorenson and the No. 41 Target Team’s last run was at Pocono Raceway where they finished 26th after battling handling woes at the Pennsylvania track. Sorenson and team dropped one position to 23rd in the standings at the conclusion of the Pocono event. They are only 53 points out of 20th and 203 out of 15th.

Rookie Rundown: Sorenson is still third in the NEXTEL Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings with 168 points. He trails leader Denny Hamlin by 55 points. Sorenson has captured rookie of the race honors in four of the 20 races run thus far in ’06 , including Atlanta (finished 10th), Martinsville (finished 12th), Michigan (finished fifth), and Chicagoland (finished seventh).

Third Time Could be The Charm: Pattie and the No. 41 Discount Tire team are going racing with chassis #452 for the third week in a row this Saturday. The chassis was run just this past weekend at Gateway International Raceway (in Madison, Ill.) and the week before at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The team finished fourth at both tracks and is hoping to step it up a bit to score its first victory of the year this weekend. ORP will not be new to the chassis either, as it is the same car the team brought to the Indianapolis track last year to take the pole, along with a third-place finish.

Sorenson comments on returning to the O’Reilly Raceway Park (ORP):
“I am looking forward to returning to Indy this year. One main reason is I know we have the car to win at ORP. It is the same car we raced at the track last year, when we sat on the pole and went on to finish third. It also is running a pretty good streak right now. We ran it the last couple of weeks, and have scored top-five finishes every time, so I’m hoping we can improve on that just a bit to grab our first win this weekend.

“The track is pretty special to me and always will be because that is where I had my first start in the Busch car back in 2004, and for a first run we had a pretty good day. We started third and finished with a top 15, so for a first run it was good. Last year was a positive run, too. It seems like we just keep getting better and better each time we go there, so hopefully we can seal the deal this Saturday.

A win this Saturday would be really special for us, one being the fact Chip’s [Ganassi, team owner] history in Indy and just the history of motor sports altogether that the whole Indianapolis area possesses.”