Sorenson sits out delay in the rain to keep qual time (cont'd)

"It seems like with these cars it's kind of tough everywhere [to pass], but if you have a really good car you can go to the front -- it just takes a while, and you can't focus as much on trying to get your car better because you're trying to get up through the field if you have a good car.

"Your pit stall is not as good and you're racing around a lot of crazy people, so the first half of the race is what kills you. Once you crack into the top 15, the rest of the day you can take your time and just pick 'em off one by one, if you're good, so [it's good] we don't have to deal with that."

Sorenson and the rest of the garage sat through a 1-hour and 54-minute delay before qualifying resumed, and he only had to wait five cars -- nine minutes -- before Kevin Harvick, who'd been fastest in the day's lone practice session, knocked him off the pole.

Ultimately, Sorenson was back in the same sixth position he'd occupied after practice ended -- although four of the five drivers that beat him in qualifying took advantage of the superior track conditions post-rain delay.

"We've had a good car here the last three or four races -- we qualified third in this race last year," Sorenson said. "I really like this track and it really feels like we have a good setup for here.

"We struggled in the first half of practice earlier, but we found out where the problem was with our Target Dodge. We ran a 10th [of a second] faster than we did in practice. There may have been some more left, but not much."

The third-row starting spot puts Sorenson and crew chief Donnie Wingo in position to harvest some positive momentum as they come up on the halfway point of the 36-race season.

With qualifying for the 12-man Chase for the Sprint Cup a virtual impossibility, Sorenson knows he can still get well clear of 35th if his team performs as it's capable.

With some of his personnel moves and statements, Ganassi has made it clear he expects better performances out of all of his stock-car teams.

Currently, Sorenson's teammate Juan Montoya is 19th in the driver standings and 20th in the owner standings; while the team's third car, which has been driven by a variety of drivers due to an injury suffered by primary driver Dario Franchitti, is 39th in the owner standings.

Several races ago, Sorenson was paired up with the veteran Wingo.

"Working with Donnie has been fine -- the individual teams seem to be fine -- we're struggling as an organization," Sorenson said. "If one car was running fifth every week and another one was running 35th, then I'd say you'd have some kind of a problem with the team.

"But most of the places we go, we're really close, where we run. You know, at Michigan, we were really bad, but so was the 42 [Montoya's] car. We seem to be good and bad, together as an organization. In practice [Friday], all three of our cars were good."

In practice (speeds), Montoya was third, Sorenson sixth and Franchitti 13th; and in qualifying, Franchitti was seventh behind Sorenson, but Montoya fell to 32nd.

"We've got to get better as an organization, not necessarily as individual teams," Sorenson said. "I don't see where there's anything wrong with this team, or me and Donnie or anything like that."

Sorenson began the season going great guns, when he qualified and finished fifth in the Daytona 500, but since then the team has performed erratically and spiraled down through the standings.

Sorenson said he definitely believes in momentum and critical moments to any season -- though he was quick to add "there's plenty of racing left to go this season."

"We ran good here last year so I expected to run good here, coming in," Sorenson said. "It's good timing for us to come here, because we need the points and we need some momentum for all three cars.

"It's good to go to Daytona next week because we ran good there at the start of the year. We don't have to win here -- but a nice, solid top-10 both times we're here would be great.

"If we get a good finish here [Sunday], it'll carry into good momentum next week, and we feel like we should have a good car there -- so if we can rattle off two weekends with good finishes, that should just set up the rest of the year for us."