Reed Sorenson to compete in at least three races with Red Bull Racing
Reed Sorenson will join Red Bull Racing beginning with the June 27 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. // Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Illustrated
SONOMA, Calif. – Reed Sorenson is scheduled to drive three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races for Red Bull Racing, but the organization may make more driver changes with it’s No. 83 team as the season progresses.
Sorenson will take over the driving duties when the series travels to New Hampshire next week, as will be in the car for races at Daytona and Chicago.
“I would venture to say the next three is certainly possible, because you have a natural break with the off weekend [after Chicago],” Red Bull Racing General Manager Jay Frye said Friday at Infineon Raceway. “We understand it’s not fair to throw somebody in the car for a week, necessarily; we try to do a little program with them.”
Swedish driver Mattias Ekstrom, a former DTM champion in Germany, is competing for the team in this weekend’s Toyota Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.
Casey Mears had been the team’s fill-in driver for the past four points events. He stepped in after driver Brian Vickers announced he would sit out the remainder of the season while undergoing treatment for blood clots.
Contact with teammate Scott Speed at Michigan a week ago, and the subsequent 36th-place finish, wasn’t the determining factor in the decision to make the driver change, Frye said. But he added that with finishes of 22nd or worse in Mears’ four starts, and a driver change already set for this weekend, bringing in Sorenson made sense.
“We’re looking for performance,” Frye said. “This is a professional sport. We’re all paid to perform out here. … We need to perform. We owe it to ourselves, our sponsors, our team that we perform. That’s what it’s about. We’re trying to find that combination.
“Are we saying that was Casey’s fault, what happened [at Michigan]? No, It just didn’t work for those events. We wish him the best. We think Reed coming in for the next couple of weeks will give us an opportunity to take a look at something else and give us a chance to perform.”
Sorenson, 24, is winless in 148 starts in the Cup series. He spent three full seasons with team owner Chip Ganassi before moving to Richard Petty Motorsports in 2009. Sorenson also has experience working with Red Bull crew chief Jimmy Elledge during his time at Ganassi.
While he has three Cup starts this season, Sorenson has focused on competing in the Nationwide Series, where he drives for Braun Racing.
