Loudon: Scott Riggs race report

LOUDON, N.H. (July 25, 2004)--Scott Riggs collected a 28th-place finish in Sunday's Siemens 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Heading into the Nextel Cup Series event, the Valvoline race team was confident they had a car capable of a top-10 finish. However, with the sun shining over the 1.058-mile oval for the first time during the race weekend, track conditions were unfamiliar and the Valvoline team was never able to find the setup it was looking for.

"We didn't have the car we needed today," said Riggs, who started the competition from the 15th spot. "The Valvoline Chevy was good off the truck and the team did a great job making it better all weekend. But when the race started, we were missing something.

"We kept coming into the pits to make changes and throw new tires on the car, but we just missed the right combination and could never get it quite where we wanted it."

Riggs added that while his lap times weren't bad, he was unable to pass many cars on the racetrack.

"I couldn't turn where I wanted to," Riggs offered. "We had some decent lap times, but it took the whole track to get them. I couldn't get under anyone and complete passes. We just couldn't go to the front."

"It's disappointing," said Riggs of the team's result. "This whole team knows we've been making a lot of progress lately and we won't let this knock our confidence. We won't get discouraged. We'll just have to look ahead to next week and see what we can do to perform well in Pocono."