Reed Sorenson, No. 41 Target Dodge
Neighborhood Excellence 400 – Dover International Speedway Advance – 6/4/06
Target Team Fast Facts:
Delivering at Dover: Reed Sorenson has posted some impressive results at Dover International Speedway (DIS) in two Busch Series starts at the track known as “The Monster Mile”. He has an average starting position of 4.5 and an average finish of third. Sorenson’s career-best finish at the track was runner-up in last season’s June race. Sorenson has led a total of seven laps at Dover in Busch Series competition.
NEXTEL Cup Points Report: Sorenson and the Target team are 20th in the overall standings after their 10th-place effort in the last event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The team is only 100 points out of 15th and 239 points out of the top 10.
Rookie Round Up: Sorenson currently sits third in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings with 105 points. He trails leader Denny Hamlin by 27 points. Sorenson has captured rookie of the race honors in two of the nine races run thus far in ‘06 (Atlanta – 10th-place finish, Martinsville – 12th).
Busch Series Update: Sorenson is 14th in the overall Busch Series driver standings heading into this weekend’s race. The Discount Tire team is 127 points out of 10th and 255 out of the top five.
Different Look: This weekend, the No. 41 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix (CGRFS) Busch team will take on the blue and white colors to represent Commit—the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) stop smoking lozenge. The special paint scheme is the second run of a five-race partnership between GSK and the CGRFS Busch team. One of the GSK stop smoking products—Nicorette, NicoDerm CQ and Commit—can be seen on board with Reed Sorenson every weekend as an associate sponsor, but Commit will take center stage on his No. 41 Dodge this Saturday. Commit, Nicorette and NicoDerm CQ are the leading branded products to help smokers quit. This past March, Nicorette sponsored the NASCAR Busch Series race at Atlanta, which marked the first NASCAR race to ever be sponsored by a smoking cessation product. Nicorette is also on tap to sponsor the No. 41 Dodge in the NEXTEL Cup race at Richmond in September. This is GSK’s second season as a sponsor of CGRFS. To learn more about the pharmaceutical company and its products, go to www.gsk.com.
QUIT CREW: After a successful run with the CGRFS team last season, GSK launched a “QUIT CREW” program earlier this year that involves a smoking cessation initiative to help NASCAR team members quit smoking. In addition to stomping out the cigarettes inside the NASCAR garages, GSK also is on a mission to utilize its involvement with the popular motor sport to help millions of race fans increase their awareness about effective therapy to quit smoking. To see a mix of quitting tools and to learn more about the QUIT CREW program, go to www.quit2win.com.
Chassis: Crew Chief Jimmy Elledge and the Target Team have selected chassis #505 for this weekend’s NEXTEL Cup event at Dover. This is the first race for the car this season, but the team competed with it in the 2005 September Dover race with Casey Mears, finishing 10th.
Reed Sorenson on The Monster Mile…
“Dover was a really good track for us last season in the Busch car, and I’m hoping for some of the same results in both the Busch and Cup cars this weekend. I really like the track and its very fun to race on, especially if your car is handling well. It’s extremely fast, so if the car is off a little bit you definitely have your hands full.
“Our Cup car is the one Casey finished 10th with at the track last year. Jimmy and the guys have a pretty good base to start with on the setup and we’ll just work on getting it tuned in for the race. I’m very optimistic that it’s going to be a good weekend for the Target team.”
