Chip Ganassi Racing w/Felix Sabates Advance
NEXTEL Open – Lowe’s Motor Speedway – 5/20/06
Reed Sorenson, No. 41 Target Dodge

No. No. 41 Team Fast Facts:
Chassis: Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge and the Target Team have selected chassis #206 for this weekend’s NEXTEL Open. This is the same car the team used at California Speedway at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier in the season.

Feels Like the First Time: Sorenson will be making his first appearance in the NEXTEL Open this weekend. The event will mark Sorenson’s first competition in a NEXTEL Cup car at the 1.5-mile speedway, however, he has multiple starts at the track in Busch Series competition with Sorenson capturing a career high fifth-place finish (May ’05).

Testing at Charlotte: The No. 41 team tested at Charlotte two weeks ago in preparation for the race weekends ahead at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, focusing much attention on the circuit’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600. After two days of testing Sorenson turned in the 21st fastest lap at 181.781 mph.

Paint Scheme Change: The Target team is running the reverse colors of its primary paint scheme for the third consecutive race. What is red is white and visa versa. The scheme will also run in next weekend’s race at Lowe’s in addition to the October event at the track, and it will run in July at Daytona.

Rookie Ranks: Sorenson currently sits fifth in the Raybestos Rookie of the Years standings with 93 points trailing leader Denny Hamlin by 26 points.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup points standings: Sorenson and the Target team jumped up two positions to 24th in the overall standings after their 11th-place effort at Darlington. They are 46 points out of 20th and 128 out of the top 15.

Meet Reed in Concord This Week: On Thursday, May 18, Reed Sorenson will stop by the Discount Tire Store located at 575 Dickens Place NE in Concord, N.C. to meet fans and sign autographs from 4:30 to 6 p.m. ET. For more information, call (704) 786-2001.

Sorenson on the NEXTEL Open…
“It’s an all or nothing race, pretty much like the whole evening. Only the winner of the NEXTEL Open advances to the All-Star event, and everyone out there wants to be in that race. I believe there is a fan vote that gets one extra driver in, but we’re going out there to win this thing. We’ve got a strong race car and I believe we have a legitimate shot at it. It’s a short race so it’s pretty important to get a good starting position. We’ll give it all we have and hopefully we’ll come out on top.”