Pocono 500 - Scott Riggs Notes

RIGGS PLANS TO TAKE CARE OF UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN POCONO

LONG POND, Pa. (June 7, 2005)— Scott Riggs has unfinished business at Pocono Raceway and hopes to take care of it in this weekend’s Nextel Cup race.

After taking a provisional starting spot in last year’s June event, Riggs returned to the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped track in late July with a stout Valvoline Chevrolet and drove his race machine to the front of the field. However with just five laps remaining in the event, a faulty battery beset the team and quickly fell from seventh to 22nd.

“That was a frustrating day,” recalled Riggs. “We started in the mid-twenties and drove all the way to the front. One of the rewarding parts was that we didn’t have a dominate car all day -- the guys just did an awesome job of making changes and finding the right combination and it paid off. We were moving forward and then with five laps to go the battery died. That was one of the worst things I’ve had to call over the radio.”

Riggs is confident that this weekend’s Pocono 500 has a potential top five or better finish to offer the team and hopes that they can get back what they feel was left behind last year.

“We’ve been looking forward to Pocono ever since we left,” said Riggs. “It will be a little different this year with the new gear rule that NASCAR is enforcing, but we should still be good. Hopefully we can get a strong starting spot, which we haven’t done there yet, and stay up front the whole race. Pocono is definitely a place we feel we can bring home a strong finish for the Valvoline team."

“We’re planning to pick up where we left off,” offered Riggs. “We’ve had strong runs the last couple of races. If things had gone our way, we were looking at probably a top five in Charlotte and a top ten in Dover. We’re right around the corner from a strong top five run, possibly even a win. Maybe this will be the week.”