Conversation: Casey Atwood

Casey Atwood has just about seen it all, and he's still only 22 years old. Atwood made a fast rise through the NASCAR ranks and landed in one of Ray Evernham's Dodges at age 20.

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But almost as quickly, Atwood was gone. Evernham moved him out of the No. 19 and put him in the No. 7 car, with an alliance with Ultra Motorsports. That deal didn't last a year, and Atwood found himself out of a ride and on the sidelines.

He's back again, this time with a part-time ride with FitzBradshaw Racing in the Busch Series. While only a handful of races are scheduled for 2003, Atwood hopes the deal can propel him back to the ranks of the NASCAR elite.

Recently, NASCAR.com dispatched Lee Montgomery to sit down with Atwood and talk about what happened to his career, how he spent his time off and what his prospects are for the future.

How have you been keeping busy the past several months? I know you've got a reasonably new house in Nashville. Have you been busy there? What else have you been doing?

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Atwood: "I haven't been doing a whole lot. It's hard to stay busy when all you've ever done is race, and you're used to going to the race track and things like that. I've just been hanging out at the house, around with my family, just trying to stay pretty laid-back."

You're not a guy that goes looking for publicity. Has it been hard trying to keep your name out there so people still realize you want to do this?

"I don't know. Maybe. I've been trying to go to some of the Busch races and walk around the pits, just try to put my face out there. I knew eventually I'd get a hold of something. I just wanted to get back into Busch, and I knew it was going to have to be somebody starting another team or somebody getting swapped around. I was being patient, and I was just waiting for the right deal. It hasn't been too bad."

So it hasn't been frustrating? You never had doubts in your mind that you could still do this?

"No, I don't think I had doubts about myself. I've won races in this division before and won poles, so I feel like I can do it. It just takes the right situation, and I've just tried to stay upbeat about it and try to tell myself that something will come."

This Busch deal with FitzBradshaw, is it the kind of thing that can get your career back on track? Or is there still more to be done?

"It's going to help me out a lot. They want to win, and they're going to get whatever it takes to win races. I think it was a good match. I think everything came along so quick for this weekend (at Charlotte), it was kind of thrown together too fast, and we didn't have time to prepare. But in the future, I think it's going to be a good deal. We've just got to get all the people in place that we want to, and then it's going to work out."

What's left to make this a permanent thing? I know the Navy's on board, but do you need more crew guys? What's got to happen?

"We're working on that. I made it know that I want to get back in the Busch Series full-time, so I think we can work something out. We've got to get crew people in place, build some cars and just work at whatever we need to work at to make it happen."

With Ray Evernham, what is your status with him? Do you still have a contract with him? What's going on there?

"He's released me so I can drive other stuff. We're still trying to work some of the stuff out. We're still friends, and we talk. I'm going to run a race for him at Pocono. He got a one-race deal and called and asked me to do it. We're still on good terms. Doing this (Busch) deal is not going to play a role in any of that. He's been good."

Obviously, there's no hard feelings. But did the whole episode with all that, moving from team to team, convince you -- as if you didn't already know -- that this indeed is a business?

"Yeah. I mean, I learned some of that back in Busch. It's just a hard business. Sometimes things don't work out like you want to. But, yeah, it definitely showed me a lot of what racing's about. It's changed. It's changed a lot, even since I've started. We're getting used to that and hope I can just look forward form now."

How do you handle that? Do you just have to convince yourself that it is business? It's not you, it's circumstances or whatever else.

"That makes a little bit of difference. It's nothing personal. I know Ray and everybody still has faith in me as a driver. It just didn't work out as quick as he wanted to. He thought some more experience on his team would work out better. You can't blame him for trying to better his race team. He's got to look out for himself, and I've got to look out for myself. That's just the way you've got to look at it."

Do you feel like that whole deal damaged your reputation in the eyes of other car owners, drivers or fans?

"I don't think getting released from the 19 hurt me any. The way I ran last year in the 7 hurt me a lot. We never had a top-10 and just didn't run good. I ran way worse than I did in the 19. That might've hurt me just a little bit. Maybe not as bad as I'm thinking it was. Maybe car owners know what was going on other there and know I didn't have the stuff I needed to drive. Maybe it didn't hurt so bad."

I guess drivers are always some of the hardest people on themselves. Were you hard on yourself with that deal?

"Yeah. I feel like you've got to be. You've got to push yourself. You've got to be the hardest person on you because sometimes, a lot of people won't be hard on you. You won't have people hollering at you, making you try harder. I think everybody out there is a little hard on themselves."

Have you had any other Cup offers? And if so, why didn't you take them?

"No, I haven't had any permanent Cup offers yet. I haven't even tried. When I come to the races, I don't even walk in that garage. I've just been staying over in the Busch Series. That's what I want to do. I feel like there's only four or five Cup teams out there that can run up front consistently. If you're not with them, you're not going to perform. You're going to perform sometimes, but you're not going to perform all the time. I just wanted to return to Busch, so when I've been going to the race track, this is the only garage I've been walking in."

Do you still feel like you've got something to prove? Not to stick it in anybody's face, but you still want people to say, "Yeah, Casey's a good driver"?

"Yeah, I definitely want people to think that. At one time, most everybody thought that. Back when I was in Busch the first time, I won races and won poles. I was coming up pretty strong then. Stuff gets taken away from you sometimes, and people don't remember that stuff that happened back in the past that you've done and you've accomplished. So, yeah, I want to come out and show everybody I can do it."

And it wasn't that long ago that you were doing that. As fast as you got it, almost as quickly, it was taken away.

"It happened fast. I won the pole in my second Busch Series race, back in '98. It hadn't been that long. I think people still know that I can run up front., Hopefully, this opportunity right here will give me that.