On Tuesday, NASCAR Nationwide Series regular, Reed Sorenson revealed publicly that he had been fired from Turner Motorsports. On the same day, Turner Motorsports sent out a press release stating that Brian Vickers would be in its No. 32 Nationwide Series car—the one that has been driven primarily by Sorenson this season—for Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 NNS event at Kansas Speedway and in next Friday night’s Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. A driver for the other races remaining on the 2011 schedule has not been announced.
Sorenson’s firing seems somewhat odd considering statistics and timing. After all, Sorenson has consistently produced the best results among the organization’s full-time Nationwide Series drivers, the other two being Justin Allgaier and Jason Leffler.
Sorenson is currently third in the series points standings, 49 points behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler. Meanwhile, Allgaier is in fifth spot, 86 points back, and Leffler finds himself in sixth, 141 points out. Also worth nothing, Sorenson claimed two $100,000 Nationwide Insurance Dash 4 Cash bonuses for the team earlier this year.
Judging by Sorenson’s stats, especially in comparison with those of his teammates, his firing probably wasn’t related to a performance issue. After all, he’s the best-performing driver on the team this year. Stats don’t lie.
Then his firing must have been for some other reason, but for what reason? There was an on-track incident between teammates Sorenson and Allgaier in early in September at Atlanta Motor Speedway, after which Sorenson expressed displeasure in his teammate’s actions in a television interview. But Sorenson’s comments were rather tame compared to some—i.e. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson numerous times last year or Kyle Busch angrily expressing desire to kill Denny Hamlin after the 2010 Sprint All-Star Race. Granted, those two examples came from a different NASCAR circuit, but similar none-the-less.
Allgaier, soon after, accepted responsibility and took the blame for the on-track contact that Sorenson was upset about. So, apparently, Allgaier thought it was his fault.
Maybe that incident had nothing to do with Sorenson’s firing. After all, that was early September, and here we are now, approaching mid-October. Or maybe Turner was just waiting until it found a driver to fill his seat.
Maybe it’s a matter of who you know AND somewhat related to the Atlanta incident. Possibly worth noting—Allgaier’s wife is close friends with Turner Motorsports owner Steve Turner’s daughter. Maybe that has something to do with it, but maybe not.
Maybe, behind the scenes, there’s still tension between the two drivers that the rest of us just haven’t been witnesses to. Sorenson just confirmed that he was fired, and the Turner organization is remaining pretty tight-lipped. It didn’t even mention Sorenson’s firing at all when it announced that Vickers would be his replacement for at least a couple of weeks. The release just said that Vickers had come on board to drive the No. 32 car for a couple of races. There was no mention of the car’s previous driver.
Turner Motorsports also released a statement around the same time in regards to letting employees know of possible cutbacks at the end of the season as a result of Dollar General taking its sponsorship elsewhere. Dollar General is the primary sponsor on the No. 32 car, as well as sometimes serving as primary sponsorship on one or two of the organization’s other entries.
But that Dollar General sponsorship seems to be in place for the rest of the year, at least for this weekend. One of the statements released by Turner Motorsports even mentioned Dollar General as the primary sponsor on the No. 32 car Vickers is expected to drive the next couple of races—the car Sorenson was originally expected to drive.
So why let Sorenson go now? There’s a lot that goes on within a race team that those outside the organization never hear anything about. This must be one of those instances. It just seems kind of weird that a driver in the top-five in his series be fired from a job that still has sponsorship funding, at least for a little while longer. This may just end up being one of those mysteries we never learn the answer to.
Be sure to follow Auto Racing Daily on Twitter @AutoRacingDaily or fan/like our page on Facebook—Auto Racing Daily. Amanda’s also on Twitter @NASCARexaminer and has a fan/like page on Facebook—NASCAR Examiner
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/05 at 08:29 AM
.jpg)
| 
|