Daytona II: Casey Atwood preview

Casey Atwood
No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T
Daytona International Speedway
Pepsi 400
7:30 p.m. (EDT) July 6, 2002
160 Laps/400 Miles
2.5-mile superspeedway

Autograph Appearance: Casey Atwood 22 p.m., Friday, July 5

Sirius Satellite Radio Rhythm of the Road Tour
Daytona International Speedway

Second Time Around

"I'm looking forward to getting back there and having another shot at Daytona. We had a pretty good run going there in February until the wreck. We were running in the top 20 most of the race and just trying to avoid the Big One. Unfortunately, that didn't work out, and we ended up with a wrecked Sirius Dodge."

"If February it was pretty tough to pass. Hopefully it'll be a different deal this weekend. We're looking for a good qualifying run so we can start up front and stay out of trouble. I'm a pretty patient driver, so we'll just do what we gotta do to be there at the end."

A Little Night Music

"I grew up racing on Saturday nights in Nashville, so I always enjoy the night races. This is going to be a fun weekend. We've got a cool band on the hood of the Sirius Dodge - Papa Roach. They are definitely one of my favorite new bands, and their new CD is great."

Daytona Stats & Facts

Atwood started 26th in the 2002 Daytona 500, but an on-track incident relegated him to a 35th-place finish.

Atwood has two other Winston Cup starts at Daytona:

Atwood started 21st in the 2001 Daytona 500, his first, and finished 20th.

Atwood started 4th in the 2001 Pepsi 400 and finished 28th.

Atwood has two Busch Grand National starts at Daytona, finishing 17th in 1999 despite a late-race accident and 31st in 2000.

This weekend, the No. 7 Sirius Dodge will feature DreamWorks Recording stars Papa Roach, with band members including Jacoby Shaddix, Jerry Horton, Tobin Esperance, and David Buckner. The Sirius Hood Program began at the Sirius Satellite Radio 400 in Michigan with DreamWorks Records recording stars Soluna.

In only his second appearance at Sears Point, Atwood put together a strong run to finish 21st after starting at the back of the field.

Atwood has been a roll lately, posting three consecutive best finishes of the season:

17th at Lowe's Motor Speedway
14th at Dover Speedway
11th at Pocono Raceway

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