CHINA GROVE, N.C.(June 14, 2010) – R3 Motorsports heads to Michigan International Speedway this weekend with two cars entered into Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race.
Robert Richardson, Jr. will be in his usual No. 23 North Texas Pipe Chevrolet for the team with Scott Riggs in the No. 03 Dodge. Richardson is locked in via the Owner’s Points, while Riggs will have to race his way in around the two-mile oval during qualifying.
This will be Riggs’ second time driving for the team this season; the first was a 13th-place finish at Darlington Raceway last month.
Fast Facts:Richardson is making his 13th NNS start of 2011 and 82nd of his career. The native of McKinney, Texas has a best finish of 20th this season, which he achieved at Richmond International Raceway in April. Scott Riggs will attempt to make his 88th-career NNS start
Track Facts:In three previous MIS starts, Richardson has a best finish of 24th, which he achieved in 2009. While running near the top-20 in this event last year, he was tagged from behind with 12 laps remaining causing race-ending damage to the No. 23 machine. He’s completed 292 of 375 laps during those three starts, as well. Riggs also has three NNS starts at MIS earning three top-20s, two top-10s and one top-five. His best start was third in ’02 and finish of fifth in ’03.
Car Facts:Walter Giles and team are bringing Car No. 38 to the Irish Hills of Michigan this weekend for Richardson. This will be the car’s first run of the 2011 season.
Richardson Goes to Victory Lane:Last weekend, he was just walking through the garage at his home track of Texas Motor Speedway checking out the NASCAR Camping World action. Next thing he knew, Richardson was holding the pit sign for four-time champion, and race winner, Ron Hornaday, Jr. for his stops en route to the checkered flag.
Tune in for the Win:There will be two practices on Friday with the first at 11:30 a.m. (ET) and the second at 2 p.m., which will both be shown on SPEED TV. Qualifying takes place on ESPN2 at 11 a.m. on Saturday, with race action on ABC-TV at 3 p.m. for all 125 laps. And, you can listen to the race on MRN Radio and/or Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Ch. 90, as well.
Robert Richardson, Jr. Quotes:“Michigan is one of those tracks where you can run side-by-side and use up a lot of the track because it’s so wide. This time, we have more than a few starts on these new Nationwide cars than we did last year when we raced here. So, that’s going to help out in practice, qualifying and the race. I’m looking forward to working with Scott (Riggs) so we can exchange some feedback and I can hopefully learn some things from him. He’s had some good runs there, so we’re looking for some good info for R3 Motorsports”
Scott Riggs Quotes:“We had a pretty good run at Darlington when I last drove for R3 Motorsports. So, I’m looking forward to making some more laps in these new Nationwide cars and seeing what we can do at Michigan. It’s a big, fast track where you can fish around to find the groove that’s right for you. I’ve had some good runs there in the past, so I’ll see what happens this time and how Rob Jr. and I can work together to get the most out of our cars.”
