Conversation: Scott Riggs

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The difficulty of racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series was never underestimated by 2004 Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Scott Riggs.

But the harsh reality for the Bahama, North Carolina driver who previously excelled in short stays in the Craftsman Truck Series and Busch Series has been graphic.

	Scott Riggs

Three top-10 starts in 17 races have led to only one top-10 finish -- albeit a stunningly successful fifth at Dover -- and three more results between 15th and 20th.

Riggs' Saturday night run in the Pepsi 400 epitomized his season, to a degree. The team qualified seventh, its second consecutive top-seven run at a restrictor plate track; and spent much of the night in and around the top 10.

But in the end, a 21st-place finish was their unjust reward as they settled into 30th in the standings.

Through it all, Riggs and his MBV Motorsports crew have kept their heads up and their efforts with the No. 10 Valvoline Chevrolet moving ahead.

Riggs did a daily diary during Speedweeks 2004 to chart his progress. When the series returned to Daytona International Speedway, Riggs sat down with NASCAR.com senior writer Dave Rodman to discuss the first half of his first Nextel Cup season, and what he's expecting in the second half.

Was the Pepsi 400 kind of the first half of your season in microcosm?

Riggs: It's a shame not to come away with a better finishing position after the way the Valvoline Chevrolet performed. We had it going -- a good starting position and a strong car, powered by a Hendrick engine.

I really felt we had a shot at a top-10, but a miscommunication on when to pit for the last stop knocked us back in the field. We didn't have enough time in the race to come back.

I overshot my pit stall on our second stop (and went back to 24th). That was a mistake and put us in a catch-up mode. We came back to the front and put ourselves in a good position, but didn't capitalize on it in the end.

	Credit: Autostock

All in all, we gave it a solid effort and proved that we can run up front.

Has the first half of this Nextel Cup season been tougher than anything you could ever imagine?

Riggs: It was by far tough. So far this year has been one of the toughest seasons in my entire racing career -- as far back as you can talk about. There's been a lot of curveballs thrown at us.

It's been tough, but we knew it was going to be tough, competition-wise. There are a lot more, tougher competitors that you have to deal with each week. But the biggest thing is we've got a lot of new guys on the team, which pretty much makes it what I call a new team, here.

But we're working pretty hard together trying to learn as much as we can and get better and better as soon as we can.

What have the biggest adjustments been for you?

Riggs: We have the new Goodyear tire this year and it's been a huge change for me. It's like no other tire that I've ever felt before in the past, so that's been tough to try to get a hold of.

The more I can learn about the tire the better information and feedback I can give back to the team, and the better feedback I can give back, the easier they can figure out what makes these tires comfortable for me, and to still be fast and be competitive.

Did you expect to have to make those kinds of adjustments?

Riggs: I actually thought it would be tough. I knew that there would be days where we would struggle and we'd have to say, 'man, that was a tough learning experience -- but we learned something from this and we'll go on to the next one and be better.'

But I never thought we'd have this many races where we've struggled so hard. It seems like it's always one little thing every week that we're missing. Usually by the end of the weekend, we figure out what it is, but by that time the race is over and you're too far back to make any headway and make a stab back toward the front to be competitive.

So, race after race it's been pretty tough but I feel like we've learned a lot.

How has the team's morale been?

Riggs: The positive side of all this is that I've got a great sponsor in Valvoline, who has been super supportive about making sure that I don't get frustrated and the team doesn't get frustrated.

Everyone on the team has been positive -- there are no negative attitudes. Everyone has a positive attitude toward everything and nobody is pointing any fingers.

	Credit: Autostock

Everybody knows that it's something that we're all doing together. We're learning race by race, together, what we have to do to get better. It's not lack of effort because everybody's been giving 110 percent.

Everybody continuing to give 110 percent every week is what is going to eventually pull us out of this hole so we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Realistically, as a rookie in the Nextel Cup Series, could you not really expect any better? And with the exception of Kasey Kahne, the other rookies are bunched closely together, so what does that mean?

Riggs: Yeah, everyone's in different circumstances. I always thought, coming into this year that we would have days that we could show what kind of potential I had as a driver and what kind of potential this team had as a team.

I thought we'd have good days where we could really show off and have a good, competitive top-five run. So far, the only person that's really been able to put that together this year is Kasey.

And I think Kasey, not to take anything away from him because he's done a great job behind the wheel, but I think there are a lot of circumstances that go along with it.

I think that him and his crew chief, Tommy Baldwin coming together over there at the same time on the 9 car has been a good thing for him because they've really worked together well. And I think that that program was headed on a huge upswing last year when Bill Elliott left the team.

I think that team had a lot of things on its side, momentum-wise and that's good for them. It's great to see that Kasey shows what a rookie -- and that means all of us -- can do and that we're capable of succeeding at this level.

So we just want to keep striving to reach that point and have some days like that.

What does reaching the second half of the season mean for you and your team?

Riggs: I think turning the corner on the second half of the season makes me look forward to going back to some of these racetracks now for the second time, because I really think the notes that we've been taking and all the things that we've been learning -- the learning curves and all the things we've been struggling through this year -- is going to start coming together.

Hopefully we'll be able to start showing what we have learned, week after week going to all these difference tracks. Hopefully we'll be better the second time around.

Qualifying has been a little bit better than racing for you guys. Is that what you expected?

Riggs: At this level of racing, the races and qualifying are two different races in themselves. You have to have a completely different car for qualifying than you do for racing.

	Credit: Autostock

It's not that it's easy to make a car go fast for two laps, but it's easier than it is to go fast for 40 laps. It almost got to the point that we were qualifying well and then when they dropped the green flag, we just didn't have the car to stay up front -- we'd fall back

Now, we're not putting so much focus and attention on qualifying. I want to make sure that that car is as good as it starts, for the entire tire run.

You had a fair amount of experience in trucks and Busch before you came to Cup, so does it surprise you that you've had your best runs at Dover and Pocono, particularly, since you've never raced there?

Riggs: It didn't really surprise me because we did a little extra work at Pocono to try to give me more experience there, since I'd never been, by running the ARCA race.

But I think that on any racetrack on a given week, if we hit all of our marks and really come together with what needs to happen on the car, and find the set-up that's happy with me and makes able to be run fast and be competitive behind the wheel, and I do all the things I need to do behind the wheel -- drive the car as hard as I can every lap and give good feedback, I think that no matter what racetrack we're at, we can have great outcomes and some great finishes.

If you feel like you've been running out of time on these weekends in figuring out where you need to go with the cars, are you particularly enthused about going back to tracks, because you'll have a better starting point?

Riggs: I really am and I think that unless things happen we will be better. I can remember on the Busch side, being great at a racetrack and even win races and then come back to the same racetrack and finish barely in the top-10.

There's a lot of different circumstances that can happen so I don't want to say for sure that when we go back to these other tracks that we're going to be great, but I think we're going to have a huge step forward.

I think we're going to look back at the end of the season and see the difference in the first half of the season and the second half. I'm hoping you'll see a huge difference and a step forward and hopefully in a real positive direction.

Hopefully we'll show that, not only in our consistency but also in the points.

Do you feel like winning the Raybestos Rookie of the Year title is still achievable, as you're getting into the point of the season where you start dropping your worst finishes?

	Credit: Autostock

Riggs: I don't know. I've sort of narrowed my focus down a lot more than looking at points, or rookie points or anything like that. I've narrowed it down to driving the car and being consistent.

I'm mostly trying to find the feel that I need to feel with these new tires at every racetrack that we go to and just to give good feedback. Whatever comes of that comes of it.

If I get too wound up or too worried about where the points are going, or the rookie points or things like that I'm sort of spreading myself out, so I've narrowed my focus down to a lot more narrow than at the beginning of the season.

I'm just thinking about race to race, taking every week one race at a time and that's keeping me from getting too frustrated about last week. I put last week behind me and focus on this week, doing the best job I can and putting 110 percent effort behind the wheel.

In terms of your test program, what do you have left for the rest of the season and do you anticipate going to Kentucky or Lakeland to test?

Riggs: We actually had a couple tests scheduled for Kentucky and every time we've tried to go it rains it out. So we've missed that. We've got about a third of our test sessions left, to use up this year.

We're going to use every one of them up and I'm sure we'll be going back to Kentucky before the year's up and using that to help our mile and mile-and-a-half track program.

It's a good place to test aero and tires, different tires you're going to run on and things like that. It's a good place to test and I'm sure we're going to use it as much as we can and try to learn as much as we can.

With Tony Stewart having a mini-brawl with Brian Vickers in Sonoma, it brings up the question: You haven't had any trouble with anyone on the racetrack, have you?

Riggs: No, not really. I've had some guys get into me or spin me around at places like Martinsville and Bristol -- places like that. But they were things that when I went back and looked at them I knew that they were accidents.

Every one of those guys have come up to me and apologized to me for it. That doesn't fix anything, but it makes you feel a whole lot better when they come up and know they're in the wrong and they apologize.

	Credit: Autostock

You know that the same thing can happen to you the following week, so that's how you try to handle it. I'm still waiting for my apology from Sonoma, from the 8 car (Dale Earnhardt Jr.).

But I guess he's too high and might to come over and apologize for it, so I don't know. I haven't had any scraps with anybody but I've sure been keeping my marks down for guys that in those last 10 races are going to be looking for me to give 'em a break.

If I owe 'em one (payback) I probably won't give that one to them, then.

Does it improve your comfort level, knowing that you've achieved the level of respect from your competitors that they feel compelled to come and apologize for something, considering they could just dump you and never bother?

Riggs: I think that I've definitely shown a lot of respect toward everybody else in the garage, and I think that everyone I've raced with -- and I've about raced with everybody by now -- knows they can race with me hard and know that I'm not going to do anything foolish.

They know I'm not going to get into them or run into them or take them out, either, so hopefully I've earned a little bit of respect from everyone. Everyone seems to show respect, back and forth, and that's what racing's all about.