Reed Sorenson won the last Busch Series race on concrete, at Nashville Superspeedway. Credit: Autostock

Sorenson cements his confidence on concrete

DOVER, Del. -- The NASCAR Busch Series couldn't get to the high-speed concrete surface of Dover International Speedway soon enough to suit Reed Sorenson.

Sorenson, 19, comes into Saturday afternoon's 14th race of the season -- the MBNA RacePoints 200 -- after walloping the field in the series' previous event on a concrete speedway.

Reed Sorenson shows off his new Gibson guitar. Credit: Autostock

The Busch Series rookie, who cemented his third position in the standings with a fifth place run last weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway, dominated the Pepsi 300 in March at Nashville Superspeedway for his first Busch victory in his 11th career start.

Since then, his No. 41 Dodge has hit a few potholes -- specifically three finishes in four races worse than 31st. But Sorenson still has a league leading seven top rookie finishes in 13 races -- all of them top-10s.

His spirits are largely buoyed by his run at Lowe's, one of 10 races this season that has been won by a Nextel Cup regular.

"We definitely gained some momentum last weekend," Sorenson said. "The Discount Tire team had started to feel the pressure of getting the finishes we knew we were capable of and we did that in Charlotte."

Sorenson's fifth top-five finish of the season puts him in prime position to improve his second place finishing average this season on concrete tracks. He was third in March on Bristol's high-banked concrete short track.

The only thing keeping Sorenson from making a shambles of the rookie of the year race is the fact that the man leading that chase -- Nextel Cup regular Carl Edwards -- has won twice and carries a 171-point lead in the standings over Clint Bowyer to Dover.

Sorenson is in the unique position of having out-raced Edwards by a single position in four of the seven races in which Sorenson has been the best rookie.

In all, he's out-raced Edwards eight times in 13 starts, but his bad races: 32nds at Phoenix and Talladega and 31st at Richmond, far outweigh Edwards' gaffes.

Another quirk this weekend is that, while former two-time winners Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Randy LaJoie are all entered, as are single winners Martin Truex Jr., Joe Nemechek, Jason Keller and Jeff Green -- none of the top-three in the standings have ever raced at Dover in the Busch Series.

Sorenson, at least, has tested on the 24-degree banked mile oval.

"We went and tested at Dover earlier this season, which is good because I have never been to that track before," Sorenson said. "I think the test was successful but most of all it gave me a chance to run the track and get used to it."

Reed Sorenson

Sorenson made a huge gain in the overall standings on Edwards, who finished 35th at Lowe's. Sorenson is 24 points behind in the rookie standings.

"I am ready for another top-five finish this weekend," Sorenson said. "And hopefully another win."

We went and tested at Dover earlier this season, which is good because I have never been to that track before. I think the test was successful but most of all it gave me a chance to run the track and get used to it. I am ready for another top-five finish this weekend and hopefully another win."

Biffle is the defending champion of this race, at which Busch regular and 1994 champion David Green won the 2004 Bud Pole. Truex won in the fall while Cup driver Kasey Kahne was the pole winner.