Red Bull Toyota gears up for Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Reed Sorenson and Scott Speed plan to score much needed points for the team.
After a welcome weekend off, it’s time for the Red Bull Toyota teams to get back to work.
But while Red Bull NASCAR crew unpacks the gear and gets the team’s cars ready for Saturday’s practice and qualifying, drivers Reed Sorenson and Scott Speed will be off at the nearby Crystal Lake Golf Club sneaking in one more round of golf.
It’s likely none of the crew will mind if the boys brush up on their putting as the rest of the team sweats in the Georgia heat, since the Red Bull duo and a few other NASCAR drivers and celebrities will be hacking away at a little white ball on a great big lawn for a good cause in the annual Reed Sorenson Charity Golf Classic. All proceeds go to the Atlanta chapter of Speedway Children's Charities, a non-profit
organization that raises funds for children's charitable organizations in the area.
Sorenson and Speed will be joined by drivers Michael Anett, Jason Leffler, Hermie Sadler, Brian Scott, Steve Wallace, and former crew chief turned Fox Sports personality Larry McReynolds and Speed TV analyst Rutledge Wood for the fourth annual instalment of the tournament.
Once the hooks and slices are out of the way, Sorenson and Speed will head to the 1.54-mile quad-oval Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday to qualify for Sunday night’s Emory Healthcare 500.
Atlanta is a really fun track, it's one of the fastest that we race at, and I love racing here.
Hailing from nearby Peachtree City, it’s no surprise that Atlanta’s Magnolia trees makes Sorenson feel at home.
“It is always great to come back home to Georgia and the Atlanta Motor Speedway,” he said. “Atlanta is a really fun track, it's one of the fastest that we race at, and I love racing here.”
In Atlanta, Sorenson will drive the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota for the eighth time as a replacement for Brian Vickers. The regular No. 83 driver is out for the rest of the season as he continues treatment for blood clots discovered earlier this year.
In his nine Cup starts at Atlanta, Sorenson has three top-10 results, including a third there in 2007. His Nationwide experience hasn’t been as successful, with three of five races ending in a crash or mechanical failure. The good news is that his two finishes in NASCAR’s second tier series were top-20s.
Speed had his best finish of 2010 in the Cup’s first trip to Atlanta in March, which was also the second best combined result for him and Vickers as teammates, and the third best for the team. The pair was a bit better in Talladega in the spring of 2009 and Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger put up better numbers in Pocono two years ago.
His 10th earlier this year was also the first time Speed cracked the top-20 in Atlanta after three tough starts where the best he could manage was a 24th place last year.
With 14 races to go in 2010, Speed is 27th in the driver standings and his goal of finishing in the top-20 overall may be out of reach.
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