As Peachtree City’s Reed Sorenson returns to his home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway, this weekend, he’s no longer racing in NASCAR’s elite Sprint Cup Series. But he has gotten himself in a position where he’s racing for wins and competing for a championship.
Sorenson is driving the No. 32 Dollar General-sponsored Chevrolet in the Nationwide Series. He has one win this season at Road America, along with seven top-five and 15 top-10 finishes. He’s been in a tight three-way battle for the points lead all season and enters Saturday night's Great Clips 300 just 10 points behind leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and five points behind second-place Elliott Sadler, who like Sorenson has stepped back from the Cup series to get back in a more winnable situation.
Sorenson said winning the Nationwide championship is high on his to-do list.
“It’s very important,” he said.
The Nationwide title hunt is different this year. NASCAR has changed the rules and now Sprint Cup drivers who also run the Nationwide Series can’t earn driver points in both divisions. That ensures that a Nationwide regular like Sorenson will win the championship.
“Going into the season, we all knew we had a good shot at it,” he said.
Now, with just nine races remaining, the battle has intensified.
“In the races that are left, we know where our strengths and our weaknesses are and we just try to look at every race and figure out what we need to do to be better,” Sorenson said. “Every race, every point counts and there aren’t a lot races left.
“We can’t afford many mistakes and have to capitalize on everything we can.”
It’s a pressure situation and for Sorenson a refreshing change from the past several seasons, where he was driving a relatively uncompetitive car on the Cup side.
“Going for the championship this late in the season is a whole different scenario than what I was in last year,” he said. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s given up on his Cup career.
“I definitely want to get back, but I’m enjoying this opportunity to run for a championship,” he said. “Some of the people in Sprint Cup can’t say they’re running for a championship. ... And it is a good feeling to show up at the race track every week and know you can win the race.
“I do want to go back to Sprint Cup, but I want it to be the right situation where I can be competitive and win races. Right now I’m in that situation over here.”
Sorenson is just 25, so time is on his side as he works to return to the Cup Series.
Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark has followed Sorenson’s career since he was racing Legends cars on the quarter-mile at AMS. He believes Sorenson has continued to improve as a driver in recent seasons.
“He seems to be a lot more mature, confident and smarter in the way he drives,” Clark said, adding that he Sorenson could do essentially the same thing Mark Martin did early in his career when he left Cup, returned to the short tracks of the Midwest and returned an even better driver.
“That seems to be an effective strategy,” Clark said.
