Atwood leads Dodge parade in ‘Happy Hour’

Atwood posted a lap of 165.107mph in his Intrepid R/T in the last practice session before Sunday's race. He was followed by fellow Dodge drivers Sterling Marlin at 164.810 mph, Dave Blaney at 164.634 mph and Ward Burton at 164.594 mph.

"We won our first Happy Hour," said the 20-year-old Atwood. "We've got to work on it a little bit more. We were real fast on the short runs, but we fell off a little bit more than we wanted to. We're going to think about it tonight and try to get it a little better on the long runs and see if we can't have a good finish Sunday. We ran about 20-25 laps.

"We're really not bad, but to be competitive in this race and to be where we want to be, we need to make it a little better on the long runs. I definitely think we've got a top 10 car. I like the track and I always look forward to coming here."

At 20, Atwood is too young to go into the Las Vegas casinos because of the 21-year-old age limit.

"About all there is for me to do here is sit in the room and eat," Atwood said. "Next year I'll be 21 and ready to lose some money. Heck, I can't even rent a car. You've got to be 24 to do that. We're having a great time. It always feels good when you qualify decent and you're pretty fast in practice. We've got a balanced body on these Dodges, and they drive better than any car I've ever driven before. All the Dodges will be pretty good, I think."

Ward Burton drove well in this race when he was a Pontiac driver and may be one of the leading contenders to give Dodge its first NASCAR Winston Cup win on Sunday.

"We had a chance to win here before and didn't take advantage of it, so we want to make sure we've got all our bases covered tomorrow," Burton said. "The car is running pretty good, but it's one thing to do it in practice and another thing to do it in the race."