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.

"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."