Rash of Troubles Makes for
Long Day at Martinsville

Martinsville, Va.(March 31, 2008) -- Trouble came early and often for Scott Riggs and the No. 66 State Water Heaters team at Martinsville Speedway and the result was a 41st-place finish in yesterday’s Goody’s Cool Orange 500.

Riggs lined up for the race in the 33rd position on the starting grid and was making modest headway through the field before the caution flag waved on Lap 20 of the 500-lap race. Crew Chief Bootie Barker instructed Riggs to come in for a pit stop if the leaders stayed out and as the leaders passed the commitment cone on the track side Riggs came in for four tires and fuel.

The pit strategy appeared to work to perfection when the leaders later pitted under caution on Lap 44 while Riggs was able to stay out and restart the race in the sixth position. However, the move up through the field turned sour just 14 laps later when Riggs was caught up in an accident coming out of turn four.

Two visits to pit road were needed to clear damaged sheet metal from the left front tire of the No. 66 Chevrolet Impala SS and on a track that is little more than a half-mile long it proved too much to keep Riggs on the lead lap.

Later in the race Riggs reported a tight handling condition in the car, telling Barker, “The car will not turn. Unless you fix this front end I don’t think there’s anything we can do.” Barker said that a part of the problem could be that the splitter was pretty smashed up and that the crew would work on it.

Brake issues soon became the team’s focus however, and two more pit stops around the 300 lap mark were needed to open up the left front brake duct to allow the brakes to cool.

Riggs let his team know that even though “this has been the race from hell,” he was very appreciative of all their hard work. “The racing gods just weren’t with us today,” he said.

But the racing gods were not done with him.

“I’m coming to you Bootie,” Riggs later said over his radio. “Something just broke.”

The No. 66 was pushed to the garage for a diagnosis and when removing the rear end gear a pan full of metal shavings pinpointed the problem. Quick work in changing the gear got Riggs back on the track and even though he was running in the 43rd position there were enough laps left to benefit from a couple of cars dropping out.

Riggs finished the race in the 41st position, 80 laps down.