LOUDON, N.H. -- Reed Sorenson was never so happy to qualify sixth for a Cup Series race as he did on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It was only the third-best qualifying effort this season for the embattled Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates driver, but when a wild rainstorm threatened to send him back to 35th on the grid, he was happy to take sixth.

“

Even if 10 guys had beaten us, we wouldn't have been as bad off as if it would've rained it out. Our car was good here last year with this [new car] and the most important thing is we should have a good car on Sunday.

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REED SORENSON

After 23 cars had run in Friday's qualifying session for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301, Sorenson was firmly planted on the pole via his best lap of the day in his No. 41 Dodge, 29.565 seconds, an average speed of 128.828 mph.

But as Sorenson watched from atop his team's hauler inside Turns 3 and 4, a horrific downpour struck the track, stopping the session.

Sorenson didn't even bother to come down, soaking in the agony he felt for the second consecutive week, when a bolt of lighting to the heart might have almost been a blessing for the third-year Cup driver.

"I wasn't dealing with it too well, earlier," Sorenson said of the experience he claimed was his first at this level -- sitting on a pole waiting out a weather delay. "I sat there for a while, and I just had to laugh. It seems like, whatever could happen to us right now, would -- so if it was gonna rain I just decided to sit in it.

"We have a fast car and qualify good -- and then it pours down rain. That just makes sense, per what we've gone through this year."

Last weekend, Sorenson stepped out of his car at Infineon Raceway in deference to CGR teammate and ace road-racer Scott Pruett; but was shocked near the end of the race when Tony Stewart rammed into Pruett on the run up the hill to Turn 2, knocking Pruett into Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, and out of the race in 38th.

"He got wrecked," Sorenson said of Pruett. "If you watch the replay, it makes you pretty upset because if you watch the on-board camera, Stewart actually got back in the gas and shoved him right through Turn 2.

"It didn't surprise me that he did that, because he wrecked his own teammate doing it. It was kind of upsetting, because Scott didn't have a great car, but he was gonna end up about 17th, which was gonna gain us some points, and he ended up finishing 38th.

"Stuff like that seems to have happened a lot to us, this year."

Sorenson came to New Hampshire holding the 34th position in the Sprint Cup driver standings -- but one position behind that in 35th and on the critical cutoff line for a guaranteed starting position.

He had recovered somewhat, about an hour after the delay, when it seemed as if diligent track drying efforts by NASCAR and the track staff would succeed in drying the track; and felt like even if track conditions had improved -- which they had -- he couldn't lose.

"Even if 10 guys had beaten us, we wouldn't have been as bad off as if it would've rained it out," Sorenson said, smiling. "Our car was good here last year with this [new car] and the most important thing is we should have a good car on Sunday.

"We've got a lot of race-trim work to do [Saturday], but this could be the best [new car] I've had here. We'll see after we run some long runs -- because you do get a lot of long runs [in races] here, and the car changes a lot after 20 or 30 laps. (Continued)