It’s Nearly a Tireless Effort for Victorious Riggs

Scott Riggs passed up a pit stop to grab the lead with 108 laps to go Saturday and made the same tires last for 151 laps to win the Advance Auto Parts 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville, Va.

Riggs, the series points leader entering the race, pitted for two tires during a caution on lap 99 and only stopped for gas thereafter en route to his first career victory in his 23rd career truck start.

The victory was the fourth in four races for Dodge. Travis Kvapil was second in a Chevrolet, Terry Cook third in a Ford.

“Everybody made me look good today,” Riggs said after warding off challenges from defending champion Bobby Hamilton and others at the end.

“I thought at first that Hamilton was going to give me a run, but he had to pit,” Riggs said. “Then, Kvapil put pressure on me, but we were able to get away after that last restart.”

Several times, Riggs pulled away, most notably after a caution erased his four-second advantage over Hamilton with 52 laps to go. Shortly thereafter, Hamilton’s race ended when his transmission went bad.

Two more cautions, the eighth and ninth of the day, put Kvapil on Riggs’ bumper, but each time Riggs’ pulled away.

The last time, with 21 laps to go, Riggs got off the line ahead of Ted Musgrave and Billy Bigley in the inside lane, and by the time Kvapil got by the lapped trucks, Riggs was off by himself on his way to victory.

Riggs’ average speed was 70.836 mph, and he won by .874 seconds.

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Jeff Ward, a seven-time motocross champion who is winless in 34 Indy Racing League starts, won the pole for today’s Infiniti Grand Prix at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. The only driver to break the 200-mph mark, Ward qualified at 201.551.

Greg Ray, the 1999 IRL champion who had won seven of the previous 10 IRL poles, also will start on the front row. Ray’s top speed was 199.893, followed by Buddy Lazier (199.432) and rookie Felipe Giaffone (199.211).

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Bruce Sarver will try to convert his second career No. 1 qualifying position into a victory today in the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Kenny Bernstein (top fuel), Jim Yates (pro stock) and Greg Stanfield (pro stock truck) were the top qualifiers in their divisions.

Sarver grabbed the top spot when he blasted his Pontiac Firebird across the finish line in 4.822 at 318.02 mph.

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Inclement weather forced cancellation of the Irwindale Speedway racing card.

The scheduled events featuring the Automobile Club of Southern California Late Model and USAC MCI WorldCom Western States Midgets will be rescheduled throughout the season.

Rain also forced the cancellation of the scheduled 125-lap NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series event at the Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield.