RACE NEWS

Riggs and RCR's Zaxby's Chevrolet Team Score Second Consecutive Top-Ten

Race/Date: Meijer 300/June 12, 2010
Location: Kentucky Speedway
Start Position: Fifth
Finish Position: Ninth
Owner's Points Position: 13th (gained four positions)

NASCAR driver Scott Riggs earned his second consecutive top-10 finish in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, driving Richard Childress Racing's No. 21 Zaxby's Chevrolet in Saturday night's Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway, overcoming a tight-handling racecar, a pit road miscue and a tire rub to finish ninth.

The finish increased car owner Richard Childress' spot in the NNS Owners' Point Standings by four positions, to 13th.

Just one week after finishing ninth in his RCR debut at Nashville Superspeedway, Riggs entered the Kentucky race weekend with confidence in the Dan Deeringhoff-led team and experience at the 1.5-mile tri-oval as a former winner in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competition at the facility. Riggs proved his confidence by running the 10th and 13th-fastest times during a pair of practice sessions on Friday evening.

On Saturday afternoon, Riggs posted a 30.957-second lap around the 1.5-mile track for a speed of 174.436 mph during qualifying, good enough for a fifth-place starting spot - a season-best for the Zaxby's team -- in Saturday evening's 300 miler.

Despite the threat of rain showers and thunderstorms all day, the Meijer 300 rolled off as scheduled in front of an estimated 61,000 race fans and a live ESPN television audience. Riggs got off to a great start in the No. 21 Zaxby's Chevrolet and drove to third from his fifth-place starting spot on lap one before the first of 10 cautions was displayed on lap two for an accident in turn four.

On the restart, Riggs again used his experience and skill to gain positions on the racetrack, working his way to second by lap six of 200. However, as the 43-car starting field began to pace itself around the Sparta, Ky.,-based track, Riggs began to drop back in the field, reporting to his RCR team that the Zaxby's Chevy was extremely loose.

When the caution flag was displayed on lap 22, Deeringhoff made the call to bring the Zaxby's Chevrolet down pit road so that the RCR team could address the handling of the race car with a chassis adjustment, four fresh Goodyear tires and fuel. However, a tire rolled halfway outside of the team's pit box and NASCAR officials issued a penalty on lap 25, forcing the team to restart at the tail end of the longest line. In addition to the pit road penalty, the team failed to tighten two left-front lug nuts, so Riggs made a second trip down pit road to have the lug nuts tightened and take on additional fuel. When green-flag racing resumed on lap 26, Riggs was scored in the 33rd position.

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