Chip Ganassi Racing Looks to Stop Bleeding at NHMS

Twenty-two-year-old Reed Sorenson qualified sixth for Sunday's LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, after a nerve racking rain delay that could have sent him back to thirty fifth.

Rookie Dario Franchitti qualified right behind him with a seventh starting position.

Why am I mentioning this, you ask? 

Well, it's showing the bleeding at Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates may, in fact, be contained.

Whatever it may be—a rookie driver coming from open wheel, a sophomore slump, bad equipment, no team chemistry—so far this year it's looked as if the CGR cars couldn't catch a break.

Juan Pablo Montoya has one top five, two top tens, and has led a grand total of once this 2008 season.

Teammate Reed Sorenson isn't fairing much better, with one top five in the season opener in Daytona and has only finished on the lead lap three times this year.

And Dario Franchitti?  Along with failing to make last week's race in Sonoma—a road course he'd run on before in open wheel—he's failed to grab a top five or ten, and has an average finish of thirty third.

But the Magic Mile seems to be doing wonders for the three beleagured drivers.  All three cars ran well in both of Saturday's practices, with Montoya and Sorenson setting the fastest lap times in sessions two and three, respectively.

"It's encouraging to see all the Ganassi cars running so much better," Montoya said. "We've been really good (Saturday). We haven't made a lot of changes in race trim since we got here (and) the car feels really good."

With rumors surrounding whether or not Reed Sorenson may be with the team next year, this weekend is a breath of fresh air for the senior Ganassi driver.

"If we get a good finish here (Sunday), it'll carry into good momentum next week, and we feel like we should have a good car there (Daytona)—so if we can rattle off two weekends with good finishes, that should just set up the rest of the year for us."