#41-Reed Sorenson was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race in the July 9 USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Sorenson scored a seventh-place finish, his fourth top-10 in 20 career Nextel Cup Series starts and his second in the last four races. He led the race once for six laps, the third event he has led in 2006. Sorenson claimed top Raybestos Rookie honors for the fourth time this season. Three Raybestos Rookies finished in the top-10 at Chicagoland, the most freshman drivers to finish in the top-10 in a race this season: Sorenson, #07-Clint Bowyer (9th) and #18-J.J. Yeley (10th). Denny Hamlin leads the Raybestos Rookie standings by 24 points (202-178) over Bowyer entering the July 16 LENOX Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. Bowyer scored his second consecutive top-10 finish and fifth of the 2006 season at Chicagoland. He also moved up two spots in the Nextel Cup Series championship standings to 16th entering the race at New Hampshire. Bowyer trails 15th-place Casey Mears by 54 points. A Raybestos Rookie has finished in the top-15 in all 18 races this season. Hamlin is 12th in the Nextel Cup Series championship standings, best of any Raybestos Rookie. He is three points behind 11th-place Greg Biffle and 50 behind 10th-place Jeff Gordon. Hamlin holds an 82-point lead over 13th-place Kurt Busch.(Raybestos PR), see full rookie notes, standings and history on my Rookies Page.(7-13-2006)
