(By NASCAR Wire Service)
Posted: Saturday,February 26th, 2011
Reed Sorenson wasn’t part of the four-car finish of last weekend’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona, yet he’s leading the points standings of drivers entered in the Bashas’ Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway this Saturday.
Welcome to the new world of Nationwide Series points.
Three of the drivers involved in the Daytona finish—winner Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr.—are ineligible for Nationwide points because they chose to earn points in the Sprint Cup Series.
Reed Sorenson (Getty Images)
And Landon Cassill, who finished third at Daytona, isn’t running the full Nationwide schedule and won’t race at Phoenix.
That makes Sorenson, who finished fifth at Daytona, the unofficial points leader.
“It’s one race, but anytime you can start the season off strong, whether you were leading the points or if you just had a strong finish, (it) is a really big deal,” Sorenson said. “I’ve talked to my guys a lot before we went down (to Daytona), and I said, ‘We’re going to go for the win, but we need to come out of this thing with a solid finish because we are trying to win this championship.’ Starting off on the right foot is a very big deal.”
Sorenson is one point ahead of Turner Motorsports teammate Jason Leffler, who was sixth at Daytona but unofficially third in the points.
Confused? You may see it a lot in 2011 as Cup drivers still will be littered throughout Nationwide fields.
“It’s going to be a little different, for sure,” Sorenson said. “But it’s something that keeps you racing hard for every position. If there are Cup guys between you and the next Nationwide guy (behind you), the more you can put in between, the more points you get and less points they get.
“I looked at the points after Daytona, and I see all the guys who got zeroes, but then you see the guy who finished fifth, which was us, we got 39 points. It keeps you racing for every position as hard as you can, because every position is still points.”
Sorenson and his Turner team may be underdogs for the championship, as Elliott Sadler and Aric Almirola and others may get more attention, but that’s fine with them. Beating the competition is more important to them than attention, and Phoenix will be the first true test to see where Turner ranks against the field.
Yes, Daytona is important, but superspeedway racing is different than racing at every other track.
And Phoenix has been kind to Sorenson, who has three top-five and five top-10 finishes in seven Nationwide starts at the 1-mile track.
“I’ve had some success there,” Sorenson said. “It’s definitely one of my favorite short tracks that we go to. I love racing there. It’ll be good to see where we stack up vs. the competition. This is kind of the first place we see if we’re better than the competition or if they’re a little better than us. I’m pretty excited to get out there and see what we’ve got.”
(By Lee Montgomery)
Fast facts
What: Bashas’ Supermarkets 200
Where: Phoenix International Raceway
When: Saturday, 5:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN2, 5 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN/Sirius Satellite Ch. 128
Track layout: 1-mile oval
Race distance: 200 laps/200 miles
Qualifying: Saturday, 2:05 p.m. ET
2010 winner: Kyle Busch
2010 polesitter: Carl Edwards
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