Win at Nasvhille gives Riggs points lead

Results At Nashville Superspeedway Pos.  Car  Driver  Make  1  3  Scott Riggs  Ford  2  4  David Green  Pontiac  3  5  David Stremme  Dodge  4  21  Randy LaJoie  Chevrolet  5  11  Bobby Hamilton Jr.  Ford  For complete results, click here.

GLADEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Scott Riggs took the Busch Series points lead for the first time in his career Saturday night, running away for his second victory in the past five races.

Riggs, last season's rookie of the year, came into the Trace Adkins "Chrome" 300 trailing Todd Bodine by 76 points. But car trouble knocked Bodine out after 190 laps, while Riggs set a race record with his Ford by leading 160 of 225 laps.

Riggs has finished in the top three four times in the past five races, climbing from ninth to the top of the points standings over that stretch. He has an 18-point lead over David Green, who finished second in the race at Nashville Superspeedway.

Riggs credited his crew for getting him out of the pits first on every stop.

"That's what it takes to be in victory lane," Riggs said. "That's what it takes to be a championship-caliber team, and that's what I feel we are right now. We'll all definitely have the momentum on our side to keep it up."

Riggs, who won at Gateway in Illinois on May 10, took the lead for good on lap 150 during the eighth caution. He became the first driver to win twice at the 1.33-mile, tri-oval and also picked up his fourth Busch victory overall.

He said he just did what he had to do as he won by a margin of 0.53 seconds. He averaged 118.547 mph in a race that featured 11 cautions for 42 laps.

"It's so important to have clean air and be up front here," Riggs said. "It's great. ... Things are just working for us right now."

Nothing slowed Riggs, not even when NASCAR red-flagged the race with seven laps left.

Pole-sitter Johnny Sauter had just passed rookie David Stremme for third when the rookie tapped him, putting Sauter into the wall before spinning out into the infield. NASCAR stopped the cars on the backstretch to clean up the debris and finish under green.

Sauter wasn't happy being put out of the race.

"As a rookie, I can say I'm still learning," Stremme said. "But that's not how I drive. I'll have to talk to him later. He's a little hot right now."

Riggs had no problem on the restart with four laps left as he held off Green, who won here in April with a late surge after a caution.

"I was actually pretty good on cold tires," Riggs said. "It seemed like the car took off pretty good. I just cleaned them up pretty good on the warmup laps, the caution laps, and I knew David knew about what I was going to do on the restart. He made a valiant effort."

Stremme was third, followed by Randy LaJoie and Bobby Hamilton Jr. as Fords took three of the top seven spots.

Bodine has flown back and forth between Pocono where the Winston Cup Series will run Sunday trying to maintain his lead in the Busch Series. He started second but finished 26th when engine trouble knocked his Chevrolet out.

"We fought it all night. I still thought we could've gotten a top five. ... That's racing," Bodine said.