Elliott and Atwood Find Watkins Glen Full of Twists and Turns
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y., (August 12, 2001) The No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T
of Bill Elliott and the No. 19 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T of Casey Atwood
battled the relentless curves at Watkins Glen International, the second of
two road course races on the Winston Cup circuit, to finish 24th and 22nd.
What appeared to be another top-five finish for the No. 9 Dodge turned into
a 24th place finish after Elliott was spun out with less than six laps to go
in the 90-lap race. Elliott moved up early from a 21st place starting spot
and fought his way into the top five where he looked certain to finish until
the on-track incident late in the race took him out of contention. Prior to
coming to the Glen, Elliott had finished in the top 10 in three of his last
four races. After finishing 24th for the day, Elliott remains 16th in the
points race.
Atwood and the No. 19 team battled through problems with the car and held on
to finish 22nd after starting from the 34th spot. Atwood's finish moves him
to 32nd in points and third in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year race.
"We just rode around all day and stayed out of trouble and got a pretty
decent finish out of it," Atwood said. "A lot of people ran off the track,
and we didn't. We've just got to improve on our stuff. My battery went
dead, and I had to turn my brake fans off, and we didn't have good brakes
the rest of the day. We just had a few problems. We'll improve on it next
time. People were getting off the track throwing dirt up on the track those
last few laps. You couldn't see where you were going. You just had to pick
a hole and hope no one was there. We picked the right hole and gained a few
positions."
"We knew we were in for a long day with the No. 19 car," said team owner Ray
Evernham. "We struggled all weekend, but I was pretty disappointed. The
No. 9 car had a great day. He just got knocked out of the way at the end."
EVERNHAM MOTORSPORTS IN THE NEWS: Ray Evernham, Bill Elliott and Casey
Atwood took part in a variety of interviews this weekend. All three were
featured on television and radio coverage of race activities including
Winston Cup qualifying and practice. Elliott and Atwood also sat down with
NBC Sports for a feature story the network is doing on Evernham and his
leadership of the Dodge program. Elliott was also the focus of a number of
stories after a release was issued stating his intentions to withdraw his
name from consideration for the National Motorsports Press Association's
Most Popular Driver Award, an award he has won 15 times. Bill was
interviewed by Winston Cup Scene, MRN, PRN and Fox Sports on the subject.
The story also was featured on a variety of internet sites and ran in a
number of newspapers. ESPN also ran a report on the topic.
DODGE AT THE GLEN: Members of the Upstate New York Dodge DAA were treated to
a race-day appearance from a number of Dodge drivers including Bill Elliott,
driver of the No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T. Evernham Motorsports was
also happy to welcome VIP's from ACU-RITE. Based in Jamestown, New York,
the company provides tool accessories to Evernham Motorsports. Guests from
ACU-RITE had the opportunity to experience the excitement of Winston Cup
activities throughout the race weekend.