Reed Sorenson returns to Sprint Cup to drive for Tommy Baldwin Racing - MotorSportsTalk

Reed Sorenson got a heck of a birthday present when it was announced Tuesday, one day before he turns 28, that the journeyman Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series driver will be back full-time in the Cup ranks this season.

Sorenson will drive the No. 36 Chevrolet of Tommy Baldwin Racing, the team announced, just days after revealing that veteran Todd Parrott — who was newly-inducted NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett’s crew chief during Jarrett’s 1999 Winston Cup championship season — would be the team’s crew chief in 2014, as well.

“I will give them everything I’ve got to perform well,” Sorenson said in a statement. “I’m confident with Todd’s winning resume along with Tommy’s accomplishments; it’s going to lead to great things for this team.

“I’m thankful for TBR and all of their partners for allowing me to be their driver. I’m looking forward to helping TBR build on what they have already achieved and to help make the team better than they ever have been.”

It will be Sorenson’s first full season in Sprint Cup since 2009, when he finished 29th while driving the fabled No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports. His last full season in the Nationwide Series was 2011, when he finished fifth and won a race for Turner Motorsports.

The Peachtree City, Ga., native’s best overall season in NASCAR was in 2005, when he finished fourth in the Nationwide Series, winning two races and compiling 19 top-10 finishes in 35 starts, all at the young age of 19.

“It’s cool to have Reed on board driving the 36,” Baldwin said in a statement. “I’ve looked at his statistics and was really surprised at how well he’s done.

“It’s taken six years to get where we are now and the 36 car is only two or three years into it so, we’re slowly building that and we’re excited to have Reed on board with his experience at such a young age and ability to provide sound feedback to help us do that.”

Sorenson finished 18th in the Nationwide Series last season for Key Motorsports, competing in only 28 of 33 races, with a best finish of 10th at Richmond.

He also drove six Sprint Cup races last season for Leavine Family Racing and failed to complete any of them. His best finish was 37th in the fall race at Phoenix.

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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