On Monday, Team Xtreme Racing (formerly Xxxtreme Motorsports) announced the signing of Reed Sorenson to drive the team’s No. 44 Chevrolet at Daytona. Sponsorship will be provided by Golden Corral in a one-race deal.
Team owner Jonathan Cohen is excited to have Sorenson in the fold.
“The 44 team has been hard at work over the offseason,” Cohen said in a press release. “We have made some big steps to further our efforts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and it all begins at Daytona. Hiring Reed Sorenson to drive for us at the 500 was the right move for our team, he excels at restrictor plate racing and we are excited to get to Daytona.”
Team Xtreme Racing finished 44th in owner points in 2014. As a result, Sorenson will likely have to race his way into the Daytona 500 through next Thursday’s Budweiser Duels. However, Sorenson doesn’t seem to be too concerned about their plight.
“I worked with Peter [Sospenzo, crew chief] before in 2012 and we already know each other’s language, so it should be ok,” Sorenson told Motorsport.com’s Lee Spencer. “I have confidence running at Daytona because I’ve run well there in the past. It’s going to come down to being at the right place at the right time. But I think this style of qualifying benefits the smaller teams.”
Overall, Sorenson’s performances at Daytona are fairly middling. In 11 career starts, Sorenson has one top 5 (a fifth in the 2008 Daytona 500), three top-10 finishes and an average result of 22.2. However, Sorenson qualified second-quickest at Daytona for Tommy Baldwin Racing when NASCAR used group qualifying for the Coke Zero 400 last July. If he were to repeat that performance Sunday afternoon, he would be locked into the Daytona 500 before the Budweiser Duels.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.