Q&A: Scott Riggs.

Scott Riggs, driver of the No. 10 Nesquik Ford Taurus, took over driving duties for the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series championship team in the off-season amid high expectations, and six races into his rookie season he currently sits seventh in the points heading into this weekend's race at Nashville Superspeedway.

Riggs won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series inaugural event at the 1.33-mile speedway last season, notching the fourth of his five wins in the series, and is set to make his first Busch Series start at a venue where he has previously visited victory lane. Riggs, who also currently leads the Raybestos rookie-of-the-year standings, spoke about the adjustment of going from the Truck Series to the Busch Series and his expectations for Nashville.

Q:
When the Busch series makes it return to Nashville Speedway this weekend, you will be returning to a track that you have won at in the Craftsman Truck Series. How much added confidence does that give you?

Scott Riggs:
It's definitely a place where we feel we have a good shot to run well. It's a typical mile-and-a-half race track, and I seem to enjoy mile-and-a-half race tracks. I'm not sure why I seem to run so well at these types of venues given my racing background, but I always know we have a shot when we go to one. The good thing about Nashville is that it's real smooth, and they put a lot of grip to it after they went back and ground on it after the Busch race last year. They ground the top surface in 1 and 2 and it's real grippy; it has a lot of grip everywhere across the race track now. I think you'll see a lot of fast speeds, but I think it's a real safe race track. I don't think it's too much like Texas where if you slip just a little bit that you'll get into the slick stuff and have to sorta catch yourself. Last year was the first season of racing there and it wasn't too difficult to make both lanes work, and I'm looking for the same thing, if not a little better, this weekend.

Q:
With the surface at Nashville Superspeedway being concrete, are there any adjustments that you have to make as a driver going from asphalt?

SR:
The best thing about the concrete is that it doesn't change that much; it stays real consistent. It doesn't change with temperature or with a lot of rubber on the race track. That's just a positive and that's a positive for everyone, so it's not going to be an advantage to anyone in particular. We won at Dover last year, too, so I can say that I've had success on the concrete race tracks, but I can't say why I feel so comfortable running on the concrete, except for the fact it stays so consistent.

Q:
Six current Busch series drivers - you, Greg Biffle, Jack Sprague, Ricky Hendrick, Lyndon Amick and Chad Chaffin - all ran in the truck series race at Nashville after they ground on turns 1 and 2. The other Busch drivers may still remember the bumps, but you have raced on the new surface.

SR:
I hope those guys remember those bumps, and I hope everybody is still worried that it's going to be slick, but I think that once they get out there and practice a little bit, they'll see that it has a lot of grip and it's a real comfortable place to go fast.

Q:
Did you test there in the off-season?

SR:
No. In fact, this will be one of the first tracks I will be racing at that we haven't tested at. We feel confident that with my previous success there and the baseline setup that they have for the place that we'll be OK.

Q:
You have done a lot of testing in the beginning of the year, seeing that a lot of the tracks are new to you. How much has the testing policy in the Busch series helped you?

SR:
We've tested at a lot of different tracks that we haven't run at, and that's just a positive with the rules that they have in this series. We still have lot of tests under our belts. We've only used four or five of our tests up, and being a rookie, we still have up to 12 tests yet to run. We've got a lot of tests that I think we're going to hold on to, save and try to figure out where is the best place to use them, and maybe keep them towards the end of the year. This way we can see if we're having problems with certain types of race tracks and we'll able to pinpoint those problems and do some real testing, where you couldn't do that in the truck series. Hopefully everyone else will be out of their tests and we'll still have some left at the end of the year, and that could play into our favor in a tight points battle.

Q:
With a veteran team-mate like Jason Keller, do you try to test at the same venues he's testing, or do you prefer to think of the organisation as having 19 tests and try and spread them out?

SR:
We overlap some race tracks, tracks that Jason has been to and feels like he needs to do some testing at. We don't want to dictate his schedule because we do have 12 tests of our own. We went to Texas and tested together because we thought that having him there with me, we could bounce ideas of each other and play each other and figure out this new surface a little quicker. I think we still, if we do go to race tracks by ourselves, we do come back and share our information with each other. I think that if one team goes and gets a good baseline setup, that pretty much means that both of the cars will have a pretty good baseline setup when we go back.

Q:
This will be the first race this season without the full-time cup competitors. Do you expect that the racing will be any different from some of the aggressive driving seen over the past few weeks?

SR:
I haven't even thought about it to be honest. I lot of people complain about the Cup guys running with us. I see it as more competition, but I don't see them as Winston Cup drivers, I just see them as other drivers that we're racing against. I feel that we're a good enough team that if we're on top of our game and we're good enough to win, we're good enough to win no matter who's in the field.

Q:
Do you feel that any of your bad luck prior to the event at Texas was a result of over-aggressive driving either on your part or the part of other drivers?

SR:
Not really. We've had good race cars and we've had some good runs, and a few bad luck things in a few races kinda hurt us. In Bristol, the last race, it was a flat tire and we had an alternator go out at Las Vegas, and just lost our setup in Darlington and got way too tight, but all in all, so far, it's been what I expected. The caliber of team that I'm with, they're used to running up front every weekend and I still feel that we're behind, looking at where we are in points, so I still think we're behind for what's par for this team.

Q:
Your Dad, Russell, has had a big impact on your racing career and served as your spotter last season in the Truck series. He has since taken a step back. What is his role this season?

SR:
This year, my dad said that he's just going out to have fun. He's going out to go to all of the race tracks to try enjoy himself, but he's still here for me as he's able to sit back and sorta look from the outside looking in. He can see where I might need to change my line, or maybe I'm doing something that nobody else is, and I need to keep doing it or I need to quit doing it, and he can tell me that. He's still a coach in my corner that can tell me what I need to be doing or what he sees and what he thinks, and that's always a positive. As far as putting a title on what he's doing, he's pretty much said that this year is his year to go to all of the race tracks to just sit back and enjoy.