Race 2 Win: Emerson Radio 250 - Reed Sorenson Notes

NASCAR Busch Series

Emerson Radio 250 - Reed Sorenson Notes

Reed Sorenson, No. 41 Discount Tire Dodge
Emerson Radio 250 – Richmond International Raceway – 09.08.06

No. 41 Discount Tire Team Fast Facts:

CGRFS Wins 2006 Team Title: Following nine grueling hours of endurance racing at the inaugural Discount Tire Sunchaser at Miller Motorsports Park, Scott Pruett put the finishing touches on a fourth-place finish with co-drivers Luis Diaz and Target IndyCar pilot Scott Dixon to secure the Rolex Sports Car Series Team Championship for the second time in three years. To learn more, go to www.chipganassiracing.com.

Homecoming: Ryan Quann, the No. 41 Discount Tire catch can man, calls Richmond his home. He grew up in the Virginia town and graduated from Midlowthian High School in 1996. He has been with CGRFS for six years. In addition to his Busch duties, he goes over the wall as the extra man on NEXTEL Cup race days for the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline team. Through the week, he works in the composite shop at CGRFS in Concord, N.C.

Step Up: Although they didn’t return to the east coast with quite the finish they had hoped for when heading out west to race in this past weekend’s Busch Series race at California Speedway, Reed Sorenson and the No. 41 CGRFS Busch team did manage to take one step closer to the top 10 after finishing 19th in the late-Saturday night event. Sorenson and team gained one position in the overall driver and owner Busch standings. Both now stand 12th. Sorenson is currently 34 points out of 10th and the team is 54 points outside the top 10 heading into the next Busch race at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) this Friday, September 8. The Emerson Radio 250 is scheduled to start at 7:50 p.m. ET and will broadcast live on TNT (TV) and MRN (Radio).

In the Other Garage: Reed Sorenson and the Target Team rolled the dice at California Speedway last Sunday night and almost hit it big. They took over the lead with 10 laps remaining in the Sony HD 500 but their hopes, and fuel cell, ran dry with just two laps remaining and eventually had to accept a 21st-place finish instead. The Target driver and team now stand 23rd in the overall NEXTEL Cup ranks. They are 99 points out of 20th and 196 out of 15th heading into the 26th race of the season at RIR this Saturday, September 9. Sorenson is currently third in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings with 183 points. He trails leader Denny Hamlin by 67 points and second place Clint Bowyer by 20. Sorenson has captured rookie of the race honors in five of the 24 races run thus far in ’06 (Atlanta – 10th, Martinsville – 12th, Michigan – fifth, Chicagoland – seventh, Michigan 2 - eighth).

Chassis: Hoping to regain some of the same momentum they had going a few weeks ago, the Discount Tire team is returning chassis #452 to action this weekend at RIR. Brian Pattie and the No. 41 team have run the chassis four other times this season, most recently at the O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Ind., where they started eighth and finished second. Altogether, the chassis has a season tally of three top-five finishes and three top-10 starts in four runs. RIR will not be new to the chassis either, as it is the same car the team brought to the Virginia track earlier this year when they practiced, qualified and raced inside the top 10 all day and night. Unfortunately, a late hit from another car on lap 229 sent the No. 41 CGRFS Dodge slamming into the outside wall and out of the race the remainder of the night (finishing 36th). In September 2005, the same chassis also carried Sorenson and team to a seventh-place finish (started 15th) at the short track.

Sorenson comments on heading back to Richmond International Raceway:
“The Discount Tire team put me in a great race car the last time we raced at Richmond this year. We had such a great day there and then there isn’t much to say about how it ended, except it was really disappointing. It was a rough run all night long. We got hit early on and that sent us from a top-20 run to somewhere inside the top-35. Then we came back from that to only get hit a second time and unfortunately that one did us in, and we only had a little more than 20 laps left to run. I know we were on our way to at least a top-10 night. Hopefully, everyone will practice patience a little more this weekend and race a little bit cleaner.”