Reed Sorenson

**Bradley Reed Sorenson** (born February 5, 1986) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and spotter. He last competed in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2017 for 18 races in the #45 Dodge for Petty Enterprises replacing the injured Adam Petty. He last competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series full-time for Petty Enterprises in the #43 Dodge in 2019. He last competed in the NASCAR Craftmans Truck Series in 2021 with AM Racing in the #22 in the CRC Brakleen 150 at Pocono.

## Early Career

Sorenson's career started at age six when he began racing quarter-midgets. He won the national championship in 1997. He moved up to legends cars the following year, winning 13 out of 25 races, southeastern championships and breaking track records in the process. In 1999, he won 30 out of the 50 races in which he competed. He raced in legends for the next two years and won 84 events.

In 2002, Sorenson began racing in the American Speed Association (ASA), finishing in the top-ten seven out of his eight starts. He became a full-time driver in 2003 and won the highly coveted ASA Pat Schauer Memorial Rookies of the Year award at age 17. He caught his big break by signing a driver development contract with Chip Ganassi Racing.

## NASCAR

In 2004, he won his first ARCA race, at Michigan International Speedway, in the No. 77 Sherwin-Williams Dodge. He finished in the top-five in all three of his ARCA starts. Sorenson also ran in five NASCAR Busch Series events for Chip Ganassi Racing, and had three top ten finishes, and a top five, which was a fourth-place finish at Homestead.

### 2005

Sorenson was named the full-time driver of the No. 41 Discount Tire Company-sponsored Dodge Intrepid for Ganassi for 2005, competing for rookie of the year. He won his first Busch Series race, at Nashville Superspeedway, winning by more than 14 seconds after starting on the pole and leading 197 out of 225 laps. After the Federated Auto Parts 300, he was leading the points race by 51. Sorenson picked up another win at Gateway. He ended the season fourth in points and finished second in the rookie of the year race to Carl Edwards.[*citation needed*]

Towards the end of the season, he was signed to move up to the Nextel Cup Series to drive the No. 41 Target-sponsored car full-time. He made his Nextel Cup debut in the 2005 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, racing as No. 39, but was involved in a crash and finished 41st. After a failed attempt to qualify for the Dickies 500, he ran in the Ford 400 for Phoenix Racing, where he finished in 28th.

### 2006–2008

2006 brought on Sorenson's first season as a Nextel Cup Series regular, along with running a full-time driver in the Busch Series. His best finish in the 2006 Nextel Cup season was a fifth-place effort at Michigan International Speedway, and he ended the season with five top-ten finishes. He finished 24th in the 2006 points Nextel Cup standings and was fourth in the 2006 Raybestos Rookie of the Year contest with 198 points finishing behind Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., and Clint Bowyer. He also fell in the Busch Series, dropping from fourth in the standings as a 19-year-old the year before to 10th place in 2006.

Sorenson broke his 61-race winless streak in the Busch Series at Gateway International Speedway by leading 95 laps and avoiding late race cautions to win the Busch Gateway 250 in Madison, Illinois. In Cup, he had a career best finish of fourth, at the Coca-Cola 600, and later a third-place finish at his home track at Atlanta. Sorenson got his first career pole, at the Allstate 400. Sorenson became the youngest pole winner ever at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; at 21 years, 173 days old. He broke a record that stood for 72 years. It was previously held by Rex Mays, who won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 in 1935 at 22 years of age. Sorenson ended up leading 16 laps, and finishing in the fifth place, behind race winner, Tony Stewart. At the end of the 2007 season, he placed 22nd in the final standings, improving two spots from 2006 (although he actually scored fewer points than in his rookie season).

Sorenson started the 2008 season off with a fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500. This was the peak of his performances for the season. He got another top ten finish with some late race strategy in a rain shortened New Hampshire race. He was temporarily replaced by Scott Pruett at Infineon Raceway in an attempt to gain points in the owners' standings. Sorenson ran a limited 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series competing in the Aaron's 312 at Talladega Superspeedway in the Fitz Motorsports No. 22 Arctic Ice-sponsored car.

Sorenson competed in the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway to defend his win from 2007, in the No. 40 Fastenal Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge. He was involved in a mid-race wreck that ended his chance to defend his title. On August 26, 2008, it was announced that the 2008 season was to be Sorenson's last season with Ganassi, after signing a multi year contract with Petty Enterprises to start the 2009 season. He ended the year 32nd in points.

### 2009

On January 8, 2009, Sorenson was named the new driver of the #43 Cheerios car for Petty Enterprises. His 2009 season was disappointing to say the least but Petty Enterprises decided to bring him full-time to their struggling developmental team in the Nationwide Series in hopes of him helping the development drivers improve.

### 2010

In 2010, Petty Enterprises moved Reed to the #43 car for Nationwide Series Team