By Mark Long
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Scott Riggs experienced just enough problems to keep him from making the Daytona 500.
The third-year Cup driver had a gear failure in his pole run last weekend, then had trouble during a pit stop in the second of two qualifying races Thursday. He finished 13th in the 60-lap race, one position behind Mike Wallace for the final spot in the starting field.
With that, Riggs was done for Daytona.
``To be here and miss this race, it's bad and I hate it,'' said Riggs, the only driver from a big-budget team out of Sunday's race. ``This is something we knew could happen coming in here with a new team. But this isn't the end of our season. It's just the beginning.''
Now, though, it will have to start next week in California.
``It's a tough blow,'' team owner Ray Evernham said. ``It's a real kick in the pants, but the only choice is you either quit or go on. You don't want to quit, so you just have to put it behind you and go on.''
Riggs spent his first two seasons driving for MB2 Motorsports, finishing 29th as a rookie and 34th last year, but got a career boost when he signed with Evernham to drive a third Dodge. But since Riggs was on a new team, he had no owner's points to carry over from last season, meaning he had to race his way into the season opener.
It didn't happen.
But without the problems, he probably would have been fast enough to make ``The Great American Race.'' He started 27th in the 29-car field, moved into 12th with 10 laps to go and barely avoided Dave Blaney's car when Blaney blew a tire.
Riggs slowed, wiggled right and slipped by Blaney on the outside, showing the kind of driving that prompted Evernham to sign him last year.
The caution flag came out, and Riggs headed to pit road. But the jack dropped during his stop and caused him to lose valuable time and several spots.
He never recovered.
He had one final chance with two laps to go and only had to pass Wallace to make the Daytona 500 field. But he never really got close.
``We knew we had to be exactly right on the money to do this,'' Evernham said. ``We had a car again that was fast enough, and we had a problem in the pits. Twice, problems have taken us out. The good news is we've built a car that's fast enough. The bad news is we had two problems that stopped us from making the Daytona 500.''
