DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.: Daniel Suarez’s bad luck was Reed Sorenson’s gain.
And once the Premium Motorsports driver knew he was assured one of the 40 starting positions for Sunday’s 62nd annual Daytona 500 – he wasn’t afraid to let the tears flow.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Sorenson. “Just proud of all these guys at Premium Motorsports for putting this car together. They’ve been nervous for a couple weeks now. A lot of work gets put into these things. So proud of them that we made the race, and this kind of gets the ball rolling, like you said, for a small race team.”
With Suarez knocked out at Lap 30 accident, Suarez was able to hide behind the pack and coast his No. 27 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 to the checkered flag.
Without a lot of sponsorship, the Peachtree, Ga. native is hoping that the phone will ring and they can put a partner on board for the “Great American Race.”
“Got a pretty blue car and maybe we can put some decals on it now with sponsors,” added Sorenson. “Just really happy to be in the 500, and everything that happens from this point is icing on the cake, so we’re going to try to go have fun and drive hard on Sunday.”
Sorenson will make his 15th appearance in the Daytona 500 – his first since 2017 and third for car owner Jay Robinson. Not knowing how many more times he’ll get the opportunity to compete in NASCAR’s Super Bowl race – Sorenson wasn’t afraid to let the emotions show.
“You never know when you’re going to not get another chance to run the Daytona 500, and it’s such a big race,” added Sorenson. “You know, I didn’t know for sure if I was going to be driving or spotting. I don’t know if a lot of people know, but a lot of times when I’m not driving, I’m spotting. So I wanted to drive, of course. I enjoy spotting, but not as much as driving.
“You know, just not knowing when the next time this might be your last Daytona 500, and there’s no guarantees on when you’re going to get that next opportunity. Just to get the opportunity was very exciting for me, and then now that we’re in, I can enjoy the moment and the weekend.”
Despite not having the sponsorship dollars flowing into the team entering Thursday night’s Duel race at Daytona – Premium Motorsports did lease an Earnhardt-Childress Racing engine for the 200-lap race and Sorenson says having the best engine he’s had in a long time could produce big results for his team on Sunday afternoon.
“We have a leased engine, and it’s been running really good,” sounded Sorenson. “We’ll be smart about it, and I think everybody kind of has that same approach to keep your car in one piece, and then usually we figure out how to all wreck at the end together.
“We’ll see what happens, but yeah, we’re definitely racing. I do have the green light. That’s why we put the effort into trying to have a fast race car, so we could make the race for one, and then once we made the race we could be aggressive.
“I think we’ll be cautious, like a lot of people say they’re going to be the first 80 percent of the race, try to stay on the lead lap, and at the end I think I’m going to have the green light to go race. We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out. A lot of anything can happen, and especially here and Talladega for a small team like us with a chance to win.
“I think you’ve still got to be smart here and not get too anxious at the beginning of the race and keep your nose clean, and we’ll race hard at the end.”
In 14 prior Daytona 500s – Sorenson has one top-five and three career top-10s earning his best finish in 2008 driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
