This weeks profile features Reed Sorenson. He's a Peachtree City, Georgia native who also grew up with some other NASCAR stars including David Ragan and rising star, Joey Logano. Today, he took over the reins of the #83 Red Bull Toyota for Brian Vickers who is out for the rest of the season due to blood clots in his legs and chest. You may remember reading my driver profile from last week which featured Mattias Ekstrom, who also filled in for Vickers at Infineon.
You may ask: well why are you doing a driver profile two weeks in a row on one team? Well, my answer to that is because both of these drivers have filled some big shoes. Vickers, in my opinion, is an awesome driver. What Mattias Ekstrom did last week was amazing; but it all went down the drain when Brad Keselowski ruined it. Todays Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was a good one for Sorenson as well. He came home with a 24th place finish, 1 lap down. There was a little controversy surrounding Sorenson this afternoon, after a late race run-in on lap 289 with the #42 Target Chevy driven by Juan Pablo Montoya. Before the run-in, Montoya was having a skirmish with the #24 of Jeff Gordon. It seems like everyone is out to get Gordon after last weeks aggressive driving, dont ya think? First David Ragan, then Martin Truex, Elliott Sadler, Clint Bowyer, and the list goes on.Well, that's in the past now.
If you recall, Reed has been in the Cup series since 2006 when he had a ride with Chip Ganassi in the #41 target dodge. He was only 19 when he made his first cup start in 2005 at his home track at Atlanta, where he finished a dismal 41st.
Unfortunately, he left Ganassi racing 3 years later with only 13 top-10 finishes. Last year, he took over the famous Petty #43 car. Many people do not know that Reed raced more than half of last season for free! FREE! They sat down and had a meeting with him and said, "You either quit or you race for free" to put it in simple lamens terms. Well, Reed's a racer. He's not going to quit racing because he has to race for free. Plus, he cared about his crew. He wasn't going to stop racing because if he did, his crew would become unemployed. He did the only thing he could; he raced for free.
Now he looks at the opportunity of filling the seat in the #83 Red Bull Toyota as one that will hopefully get him a full-time cup ride. He says, "This is something that I've been looking forward to happening this year. I took a step back running the Nationwide car with Braun Racing. That's been really good this year. That was the right move to make. We've been really good over there and I think that's helped my confidence and I think that will be the biggest help more than anything. Things happen every year and people move around and weird things happen during the season. It's been able to give me an opportunity to go out there and run some more Cup races with a great team."
On friday,he said that he and Brian are a lot alike. "I really don't think we're too much different from each other. As far as what we want out of the car compared to a lot of other drivers that have been around, I think it's pretty close. I talked to Brian the other day and asked him if he has any advice or any help to help me out and he said he'd be here this weekend. So hopefully, he'll help me out if I need any and we'll just work the best we can together."
It's tough for drivers who don't have a full-time ride every week. "You're always auditioning, no matter what you're doing. Even just being in the Nationwide car this year, it matters how you do. If you're out there running bad and wrecking and things like that, I probably wouldn't get an opportunity to be in the garage this weekend. These three races are huge, not only for more races in this car, but maybe for something else down the road in the future. After this three-race deal, hopefully it can turn into something longer and that's my goal."
And to think, Reed is only 24. He has so much more to prove to fans, other drivers, and other teams. His career is still just beginning! C'mon team owners, other drivers, and fans. Give Reed a chance. He deserves to be in a Cup car! He is currently the youngest ever pole winner at the Brickyard. If he gets a team and sponsor after this 3 race deal with Red Bull Racing, he'll be making more history. Maybe not right away. But he has what it takes to win, if given the right equipment. But that's just my two cents of input this week.
Until next time, I'm Steph Piech for The Finish Line
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