There’s Always An Angler, er … Angle

[...] Sorenson, who will turn 22 on Feb. 5, is now the senior driver at Ganassi in terms of experience at the Sprint Cup level. He will soon be entering his third full season, one more than teammate Juan Montoya. The third Ganassi Cup driver this season will be rookie Dario Franchitti, who, like Montoya, is making the transition to stock cars after experiencing considerable success in open-wheel racing. Unlike Montoya, who captured one victory both in what was then the Busch Series and Cup Series a year ago during his first full-time NASCAR season, Sorenson is still seeking to find Victory Lane in the big time. And he knows that most folks figure it’s past due time for him to get there.

“It’s like Chip has said. It’s time to win,” Sorenson said. “I think he’s got all the other series mastered pretty well, so it’s time to get the Sprint Cup cars going good and winning races.”

[About age & Montoya's/Franchitti's experience:] “It doesn’t really matter. Once we start testing and going to the racetracks, a lot of that is forgotten,” he said. “We don’t really think about it that much, as far as who’s older and who’s been where and who has won what races. There wasn’t one time last year when I thought of Juan as anything different other than a teammate who was willing to help me whenever I needed it, and vice versa. Like I said, once you get to the racetrack all of that other stuff is pretty much forgotten.”

Sorenson has made 74 career starts at the Cup level, and has four top-five finishes and 11 top-10s. It also was he — and not Montoya, the former IndyCar and Formula One star — who captured the pole last year for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where the Ganassi organization has long flexed its open-wheel muscle.

Yet he knows that his overall finishes of 24th in points as a rookie in 2006 and of 22nd last season aren’t good enough. Asked if he feels added pressure to win heading into this season, Sorenson doesn’t deny it.

But then he is quick to add: “There’s always pressure in racing. I’ve felt it since I was age 6. We’re ready to win. I think this is the year that we need to turn this team around and go from a 20th-place team in points [which Montoya was] to getting into the Chase and getting better. I think we can do it this year.”  Full Story