NASCAR Cup

Darlington II: Casey Atwood preview

Casey Atwood No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T Difficult Track I've always had a hard time at Darlington - in both the Busch car and Cup car. It's one of the most difficult tracks to go to and to learn. You've got to race right up ...

Published: Aug 29, 2002, 9:43 AM

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Casey Atwood
No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T

Difficult Track

I've always had a hard time at Darlington - in both the Busch car and Cup car. It's one of the most difficult tracks to go to and to learn. You've got to race right up against the wall. You're two inches from hitting and a lot of times you do hit it. You gotta run right against the wall all the way around it. You don't use the bottom of track like we do everywhere else. You just gotta get more experience at it and when you do, you'll run better at it.

Building Momentum

We're carrying a lot of momentum out of last week. (Crew chief) Tony (Furr) thinks the Sirius Dodge is set up good for Darlington. He's pretty confident that we'll be fast there, too. Even though I haven't had a real strong run there, I'm going in with a lot of confidence and my spirits are up about it.

Turning Point

This is about the point last season that I started to turn things around. I see a lot of similar things going on this season that we had last year. We're finally getting all the people, and we've got some consistency in that area, so I'm getting to know everybody and they're getting to know me. I think we're going to turn things around. I've got a lot of good tracks coming up. Last week was a good momentum builder for me and the team.

Stats & Facts

* This will be Atwood's third Winston Cup attempt at Darlington Motor Speedway. During the spring race earlier this year, Atwood started 40th and finished 26th. Atwood lost seven laps when the wiring from the throttle kill switch came loose. After correcting the problem, Atwood consistently was turning lap times equal to and often faster than the leaders, despite being nine laps down.

* Last season (2001) he started 30th and finished 25th in the fall race and started 32nd and finished 26th in spring event.

* This may only be Atwood's third Winston Cup race at Darlington, but he has seen "the track too tough to tame" in four Busch Grand National Series Events.

* Atwood won the Pepsi ARCA 200 from the pole at Pocono on Saturday, June 27. He drove the No. 19 Evernham Motorsports-owned Dodge Intrepid R/T as part of the team's research and development program. Atwood's former crew chief Sammy Johns led the team from the pit. This was Atwood's first ARCA start.

-em/um-

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