Ganassi Racing's senior member is just 22 years old

Reed Sorenson finished fifth in the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

At the tender age of 22, Reed Sorenson is the senior member of a Chip Ganassi Racing lineup for the Sprint Cup which includes Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti. It probably wouldn't be fair to classify Sorenson, entering his third season in Cup, as a veteran just yet -- but he showed at Daytona that he's getting there rapidly.

Sorenson drove with poise and patience, prime indicators of maturity, in all three of his races during Speedweek. Sorenson finished fifth in the 500, proving that his runs to fifth in the Budweiser Shootout and to second in the Gatorade Duel 150 (all the way from 18th) weren't mere happenstance. Restrictor-plate racing is an art which places a premium on good decision-making while requiring a good-handling car and competitive horsepower.

Sorenson's Target Dodge certainly didn't have speed on its own in qualifying. He was 41st out of 53 cars that made attempts. But in the draft, Sorenson was a force. Starting from fifth, Sorenson was in position to draft with the leaders as long as he could stay there.

"We took the conservative side on tires," he explained. "We just tried to keep an eye on the leaders -- if we could see them, we were happy. We knew there were going to be cautions at the end. The car was good all day. We just took care of the tires, took care of the car and went after it there at the end."

Lining up on the outside with fellow Dodge drivers front and back for the restart with three laps to go, Sorenson was only a car length and a half behind Kurt Busch when Tony Stewart made the fateful decision to drop down to the inside on the back straight.

Busch pushed Penske teammate Ryan Newman into the lead and Sorenson nearly cleared Stewart, too. If he had, Sorenson likely would have been able to draft with the Penske Dodges to the checkered flag and finished even higher.

Sorenson didn't have either of his teammates nearby in the closing laps, but Gillett Evernham Dodge driver Elliott Sadler was behind him.

"It was pretty fun there at the end," Sorenson said. "We got two or three wide and pushed each other really hard. There happened to be about four Dodges lined up at the end. It just happened that way and it was pretty cool. Elliott Sadler pushed me really hard and gave me a big push there and I appreciate the help."

It was Sorenson's fifth top-five finish in 75 Cup starts.

"It's not a win, but it's pretty close," Sorenson told Speed TV. "It's a great achievement for our team. The past two weeks we've been here, we've had a great run in the Shootout and the Duels. Everyone on the team has done a great job since we got here and I think that says a lot about what we can do this year."

Ganassi promoted Sorenson to Cup in 2006 after the then-teenager had spent his first season in the Nationwide (then Busch) Series. Sorenson won two races and was fourth in the championship.

Sorenson ranked a respectable 24th with a best of fifth in June's rain-shortened race at Michigan. He was 22nd last season, two spots behind rookie teammate Montoya, but actually was more competitive with three top-fives--third at Atlanta in October, fourth at Lowe's in May and fifth at the Brickyard 400. Sorenson also won the pole for the Brickyard, his first on the Cup circuit.

"We had a lot of DNFs (six) last year, but we finished higher in the points," Sorenson said during the Charlotte media tour. "We improved how the car ran at most of the tracks lat year, but we had a ton of bad luck. I think if we can get rid of that, we'll be good. (Crew chief) Jimmy (Elledge) and I are great friends and we know what the other is saying and thinking.

"This is our year and our goal is to win a race or two, eliminate the mistakes and finish consistently in the top 15 each week. If we can do that, we'll be in line to make the Chase."

Those are big goals for a team that has one win -- Montoya's at Infineon last year -- since the start of the 2003 season and has never made the Chase. But Sorenson has the talent to accomplish both and elevate the team to the next level with him.