Ganassi hopes Sorenson's time is now

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - When Reed Sorenson was promoted to the Sprint Cup Series prior to the 2006 season, after success at every level en route, the question wasn't if Chip Ganassi's latest phenom would win races and become a weekly factor. It was when it would happen.
And that time may come today.
In a Daytona 500 being billed as a duel between the awe-inspiring outfits of Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs, Sorenson has emerged as a potential spoiler. Posting fast times all week, and placing among the first five finishers in each of NASCAR's exhibition races, he's poised to make a legitimate push for the sport's premier prize - and perhaps to propel a promising career to the next level.
"We feel like we've had a good car here the last two weeks in the Bud Shootout and the Gatorade Duels," Sorenson said, "so we feel pretty confident."
That confidence really began building on Thursday, when the No. 41 Target Dodge ran second to Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the initial heat race, and has been gaining steam ever
since. The next day he topped the speed chart, and in Happy Hour yesterday he turned the seventh-quickest trip around the historic tri-oval.
Because drafting and handling can trump horsepower at a superspeedway like Daytona International Speedway, Sorenson acknowledges those numbers don't guarantee him any measure of success this afternoon. But he's encouraged by the other factors that helped him find that speed.
With temperatures expected to be higher today than they've been all week, most anticipate the track will also be much slipperier, though Sorenson said his car has been handling better than most. It's maintaining its grip on the asphalt, and after making adjustments yesterday aimed at maximizing each set of tires over 500 miles, he's confident he'll be able to sustain a place in the lead pack after starting on the inside of the third row.
"There's a lot of cars that are sliding around a ton," he said, "and I feel like ours is one of the better ones."
Sorenson hasn't been able to say that too often over his two-year Cup career. After bursting on the national scene by running fourth in the Nationwide Series at age 19, and following an adolescence of success on smaller circuits before that, he found his first struggles at the steering wheel when Ganassi brought him to NASCAR's highest level before his 20th birthday.
In his first two seasons he ran 72 races, and - with 11 occurrences apiece - finished as many races in the garage as he did the top 10. He was on the lead lap only 38 times, didn't win once, and in fact has never even been a runner-up in his Cup car.
But in Sorenson's mind, it's time to change all that. And Ganassi is hinging a big chunk of its hopes on him doing so.
Despite being the youngest driver to take the green this afternoon, Sorenson is actually the senior member of a stable that also includes second-year pilot Juan Pablo Montoya, as well as rookie Dario Franchitti. And it only adds to Sorenson's burden that neither of his colleagues were bred in stock cars.
Montoya is a former Formula 1 champion, while Franchitti is the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion - but as the three exited Ganassi's hauler yesterday, after a post-practice meeting, they appeared almost anonymous.
Franchitti left first, stomping unstopped through the garage. Then, about 20 minutes later, Montoya followed suit by marching through a pack of media that didn't want to talk to him, either.

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