NASCAR Nationwide Series

The Ganassi team gave Sorenson his start in NASCAR racing, fielding him in five Nationwide Series races in 2004 and the full Nationwide season in 2005 in which he won two races, two pole positions and scored 12 top-five and 19 top-10 finishes on his way to fourth in the championship standings.

With only one full Nationwide Series season under his belt and at the ripe old age of 20, Sorenson moved into the Sprint Cup series on a full-time basis in 2006. He spent three years wheeling Ganassi’s Cup machinery before moving to Richard Petty Motorsports to drive the famed No. 43 car last year. In all, Sorenson owns five top fives and 14 top 10s from his Cup career to date.

This year, Sorenson will look to add significantly to his stats in both the Cup and Nationwide Series with Braun Racing in a bit of a departure from what he was accustomed to over the past four years. The native of Peachtree City, Ga. makes his first of 23 Nationwide starts in the No. 32 Dollar General Toyota next weekend (March 20) at Bristol Motor Speedway and the Braun team is also planning for Sorenson to drive the No. 32 Dollar General Camry in five Cup races this year.

Sorenson and the team attempted to make the Daytona 500 last month as one of the “Go or Go Home” teams and were in position to score one of the transfer spots in the Gatorade Duel before problems on pit road under a late-race caution dropped Sorenson back in the field and out of the “Great American Race.”

He’ll try again to put Braun’s bright yellow Toyota in the Cup field at Texas Motor Speedway on April 18. The team is also planning to compete at the midsummer Daytona race in an effort to avenge its February disappointment, as well as at Chicagoland Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The two different programs bring different expectations to Sorenson.

“On the Cup side, I think we’ve got a lot to learn,” he says. “These cars are way different than a Nationwide car and we’ve got a lot to learn before the end of the year. Hopefully, we can do that. On the Nationwide side, we’ll hopefully get some good runs in and maybe a couple wins. I think we’re fully capable of doing that.

“It’s kind of two different objectives for each series. On the Nationwide side, they’ve (Braun Racing) been there for a while, had successful teams over there for a while and they know what to do. On the Cup side, it’s going to be a challenge for us all. We’ve just got to work together and give it everything we have.”

While this is Sorenson’s first season with Braun as his primary employer, it’s actually a continuation of a relationship that was formed last year, when Sorenson made five starts Nationwide starts for the team spread between the No. 32 and the No. 10 Toyotas. He began the relationship with a second-place run at Gateway International Raceway and earned top-10 results in four of his five races.

“Obviously, racing for them in a few races last year kind of developed a better relationship,” Sorenson says. “I’ve known (team owner) Todd (Braun) for a couple years as a friend, but being able to race for him last year developed our business relationship that we have. I think I ran three races in the 10 car and two in the 32, so we were able to have some good finishes. They were going to run some Cup races this year with Dollar General and I ran with Dollar General last year, so it ended up being a good match for us.”

An equally good match for Sorenson is crew chef Trent Owens, whom he worked with in his 2009 Nationwide Series starts for Braun. Owens will also be atop the box when Sorenson drives the No. 32 in Cup competition.

Sorenson is also excited about driving Toyotas on a much more frequent basis this year. Like virtually every other Toyota racer, Sorenson points to the level of service provided by Toyota as a key benefit of working with the manufacturer.

“I think the support away from the racetrack, whether it’s going to the seven-post or going to the wind tunnel, that’s support from Toyota right there that I’m not directly involved in, but I’ve talked to Trent about it and he tells me what’s going on and things like that,” says Sorenson. “Just going to those places before Daytona helped us on the Cup side. I think they get all the support they need engineering-wise, too, whenever they want it, and that seems to be something the crew chiefs like.”

Sorenson is part of a multiple-driver, four-car juggernaut in the Nationwide Series this season for Braun and is sharing the No. 32 with Cup regular Brian Vickers. Especially as somebody who has been a full-time driver in Cup for the past four years, Sorenson would obviously prefer to be driving the car in every Nationwide Series race this year. But he understands it’s the hand he’s been dealt for this year and is happy to work together with Vickers.

“We will, for sure,” Sorenson says. “They have a notebook of everything he did last year, and the few races I ran with them last year, we have those notes as well. They have plenty of cars over there for notebooks to go off of, so I’m definitely going to be working with him this year. Obviously, when he gets a fast car, we’ll try to keep working on that or if we get a fast car somewhere, keep working in that direction.”

If Vickers performance in the first three Nationwide races of the season is any indication, it looks like Sorenson will be inheriting a very fast car. Vickers vacates the No. 32 Camry sitting third in the Nationwide driver standings, placing inside the top 10 in all three races, topped by a pair of fifth-place rides at Daytona and Las Vegas.

It’s now Sorenson’s turn for the next four consecutive races and seven out of the next 10 to try and keep the momentum going for the No. 32 team. If he were able to do that and perform well in the Cup races he’s scheduled to compete this year, it would be mission accomplished.

“Obviously, I have goals this season,” Sorenson said. “We want to win a couple Nationwide races and make the Cup races we enter. We’ve got a good season coming up for us and I feel pretty good about it.”