One bad turn ... resembles another. Casey Atwood and Jimmy Spencer, at vastly different points in their career, couldn't answer opportunity's knock. (NASCAR).

Two years ago, Casey Atwood was riding the crest of a Winston Cup wave, a 20-year-old kid trying to stay atop a mini-tsunami notorious for swallowing everything in its path. As the next Boy Wonder, the next NASCAR It Boy, plucked from the madding crowd by the inestimable Ray Evernham, great things were expected of mighty Casey. It was portrayed as the perfect marriage of man and machine.

Evernham made his name as crew chief for the original Boy Wonder, Jeff Gordon, shepherding him to 47 Winston Cup wins and three series titles in seven years. But Evernham and Gordon spun magic; Evernham and Atwood spun their wheels. Together the two were left to wonder as that ...