NASCAR Cup

Sonoma: Casey Atwood race summary

Casey Atwood No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T Dodge/Save Mart 350, Infineon Raceway Start: 43rd Finish: 21st Laps: 110 of 110 Atwood and Sirius Satellite Radio hit the high notes in Sears Point. Sonoma, Calif. (June 23, 2002) - ...

Published: Jun 24, 2002, 4:54 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Casey Atwood
No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T
Dodge/Save Mart 350, Infineon Raceway
Start: 43rd
Finish: 21st
Laps: 110 of 110

Atwood and Sirius Satellite Radio hit the high notes in Sears Point.

Sonoma, Calif. (June 23, 2002) - Casey Atwood and the No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T started from the 43rd position for the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway (formerly Sears Point Raceway) but fought his way through the field to bring the Sirius Dodge home on the lead lap in 21st position.

Throughout the race, Atwood methodically picked off cars to move up through the field, spending much of the day around the 29th position. The Sirius Dodge was well-tuned as the crew made only minor air pressure adjustments to keep up with changing track conditions.

Crew chief Tony Furr made a risky call that had it paid off for the No. 7 Sirius team would have given them another top-15 finish. During the final caution on lap 84, Furr opted to stay out when the majority of the field came in for fresh tires and fuel. With 26 laps remaining in the race, it was a close call on fuel mileage.

"Our fuel mileage had been good all day long," Furr said. "The guys at the shop prepared everything the way it's supposed to be prepared and that's what we needed. When the situation comes up, you gotta be ready for it, and we were today."

Atwood agreed with the decision to stay out and gain the track position.

"It was a good call," he said. "It seems that some of the other teams that did it had good finishes. It was a good call, but it just didn't work out for us. Regardless, I think it was the right move."

Atwood restarted the race in 7th position and looked to be heading for his third top-15 finish of the season. However, an on-track incident just a few laps later sent the Sirius Dodge deeper into the field.

"It was just a rough day," Atwood said. "The Sirius Dodge was good; we had good (lap) times. We fought all day to get track position. We finally got it there, and we just got hit from behind going up to turn two and got spun out. We bunched up a little bit. The guys in front of me slowed down, and I slowed down, but the guy behind me didn't. We had good track position. We were probably going to get a top-15 out of it."

Atwood said he learned a lot about Infineon Raceway and road courses in particular.

"I think I'll like this track a lot better next time," Atwood said. "I got 110 laps today on the track, and I feel pretty comfortable with it. So next time we come back I'll feel a lot more comfortable than I was this time."

Atwood held steady at 31st in the NASCAR Winston Cup standings, just 3 points out of 30th and only 149 points out of the top 25.

Tony Stewart won The Good Guys/Sirius Pole Day award and was presented with a free Sirius Satellite Radio system and a full year of 100 percent commercial-free music enjoyment.

Sirius Satellite Radio, the country's premier in-car audio entertainment provider (www.sirius.com>), is turning on its national service and turning up the volume of its marketing program through motorsports. Sirius is the entertainment partner for motorsports entertainment leader International Speedway Corporation and the sponsor of two NASCAR Winston Cup events - the Sirius Satellite Radio 400 at Michigan International Speedway and Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen at Watkins Glen International in New York. It also sponsors the No. 7 Sirius Dodge Intrepid R/T driven by Casey Atwood and co-owned by NASCAR champions Jim Smith and Ray Evernham.

Sirius is the only digital-quality satellite audio entertainment service to deliver 60 original channels of completely commercial-free music and 40 world-class sports, news and entertainment channels to motorists throughout the continental United States. Sirius Satellite Radio systems are available today at leading electronics retailers and are expected to be available as options on many leading automotive models beginning in 2003.

-um/sirius-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Sonoma: Sterling Marlin race summary

Next article Sonoma official results

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Brad Keselowski increased RFK ROI, free to pursue next opportunity

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

8 min

Brad Keselowski increased RFK ROI, free to pursue next opportunity

When Red Bull expects to start using its long-awaited new F1 wind tunnel

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

9 min

When Red Bull expects to start using its long-awaited new F1 wind tunnel

Isack Hadjar formally warned for fan incident in F1 Mexico GP paddock

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

52 min

Isack Hadjar formally warned for fan incident in F1 Mexico GP paddock

F1 Mexico GP: Follow FP3 with live timing

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

F1 Mexico GP: Follow FP3 with live timing

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts